wonderfully happy with the resulting viewer engagement. When a person comes up to the sculptures and begins to play it as an instrument, they often become self-absorbed even forgetting they are in a public place. And that is amazing.
traditional terms. I consider the works to be sculptural installations relating to expanded media.
JR: So, what you are really after is an interactive experience?
BE: Yes, there are many established precedents [for my practice] and just the simple act of moving sculpture off of the pedestal establishes a new game. Now it becomes more like architecture.
BE: What I’m after is a way to consider my work that is justified and makes perfect sense with all that has gone into it. I was trained both as a traditional sculptor and also as a contemporary sculptor, creating installation works and even large-scale public sculpture. In terms of how I measure success in sculptural terms — it is space, it is light and it is form — how those three come together creates the value of the piece. In terms of classifying or being able to talk about my work, it simply doesn’t feel right using
JR: And of course there are references you’ve researched and those form your community.
www.jacobyartscenter.org www.bradeilering.com
Jacoby Art Gallery (photo credit: Dennis Dvoracek)
ARTIST INTERVIEWS
THE COURAGE TO PUSH THROUGH
By Sarah Hermes Griesbach
Nala Turner’s capstone project for her Bachelors of Fine Arts exhibition at Truman State University solidified her notion of herself as a professional artist. What she initially intended as a group of five ceramic artworks turned into an impressive collection of 11 imposing vessels.
Turner found herself entering an acutely mindful state while meticulously building the large-scale coil vessels for that 2018 project. As she pulled up from clay coils to form 4-5 foot tall masterworks (they would be smaller after firing), she pulled up from her own roots. She accessed a technique she hadn’t used in years to form sculptural tributes to women who had shaped her deeply, women who had started
Nala Turner, Dema (left), The Aunts (center), Mother and Sisters (right), (image courtesy of the artist) 13 ALLTHEARTSTL.COM SPRING 2019
ARTIST INTERVIEWS
long before she was born to give shape to this life she now lives. Turner named each of her 11 vessels after a woman who has helped form her. She kept that woman in mind throughout the reduction and addition process as she carved each into a signifying pattern. Turner describes the sharp contrast between the smooth glazed interior and ornately carved exteriors of these
