SCULPTURE & METALS

DEADPAN: STEEL REALISM

with Chris Bradley

SCULPTURE | 671 001 | 3 CREDITS $200 LAB FEE | MAY 28 - JUNE 10

When representation in steel is achieved the result can often be both playful and hollow. In this process-based intensive, students will consider how much visual and physical information is necessary in the pursuit of realism and experiment with the formal limits of steel. Inspiration can be drawn from a common object, local or organic materials, and/or fictive designs to explore the whimsy of trompe l’oeil. This class is open to participants of all shop experience levels. Demonstrations on sheet cutting, creating negative space through rod work, scale exercises, and surface applications both traditional and unconventional will inform the student’s self-directed work. Students will be expected to complete at least one sculpture and are encouraged to consider its in-situ presentation at Ox-Bow during a final group critique.

THE WORLD IS ONE. THE HUMAN IS TWO: DECONSTRUCTING AND RECONSTRUCTING OBJECTS

with John Preus

SCULPTURE | 684 001 | 1.5 CREDITS $50 LAB FEE | JUNE 11 - 17

This course will challenge students to work across two hand-made designed objects, one chosen and one randomly procured, to create a third sculpture which creatively considers form, function, destruction, and collaboration. Students will provide the items, which must be made by a human and no bigger than 3 feet on any side, and participate in an object swap to secure their second subject. Demonstrations including chop saw, band saw, jig saw, and other basic building tool usage will introduce students to a variety of processes they can utilize in constructing/ deconstructing their object. Throughout the creation process we will discuss the object as sacrament, fetish, scapegoat, and as matter of hermeneutics. We will look at the work of contemporary artists such as Brian Jungen, Edra Soto, Amanda Williams, Theaster Gates, Doris Salcedo, and others. Because of the short length of time we have together, some short limited readings will be assigned, but a more extensive list of resources and texts will be made available. Susan Sontag, Laura Kipnis Against Love, Joan Didion on Desire, Peter Rollins on the Lacanian subject and the church that believes in nothing. Colby Dickinson on the Sacrament and the Fetish object, Rene Girard on the scapegoat and mimetic desire. Students should be prepared for a robust collaborative experience as this course will dedicate significant time to the ritual and performance of the object exchange, so as to set the stage for considering the relationship between forms. This course will culminate in a final presentation of sculptures thoughtfully installed indoors or out.

SPECULATIVE TOOLS

with Barb Smith

SCULPTURE | 683 001 | 1.5 CREDITS $50 LAB FEE | JUNE 18 - 24

In this course we will consider the relationship between tool and art and participate in exercises which cause the categories of subject and support to blur. Students will create a unique tool to both gather information from the Ox-Bow landscape and assist in the creation of their multi-media work. Demonstrations that will assist the student in building their tool and work will include simple and non-traditional mold making, minorwoodworking, metal work including basic welding and armature making, found object assemblage, and textile techniques including weaving. We will consider the work of Ana Bidart and William Lamson, and readings and screenings may include Enzo Mari’s Sixty Paperweights, texts on colloquial architecture related to sites such as the Coral Castle Museum, and archeological methodologies for collection and cataloging. The tools can be elements of measurement or assist in creating a specific and unique mark. Drafting assignments will ask the students to consider the function of this tool within their project goals. This course will culminate in a presentation of tools and artworks.

INFLATING STEEL: THERMO-PNEUMATICHYPER-FORMING

with Jessee Rose Crane

SCULPTURE | 674 001 | 3 CREDITS $225 LAB FEE | JULY 10 - 22

In this class, students will be led through the wild process of inflating welded steel structures. Sheet steel armatures will be welded, put into a forge and heated until bright orange, then inflated with compressed air. Students will work in an improvisatory mode, rapidly iterating many pieces over the session. Studio work will be augmented by lectures, discussions, and critique that support discovery and play within the studio and this largely untapped process. We will look at the work of American blacksmith Elizabeth Brim and Polish designer Oskar Zieta and pull inspiration from the polygonal geometries of indie video game design as well as the palette of Brutalist architecture. The culminating assignment in this course will invite students to design and create a steel inflatable that will be safely installed on the surface of Ox-Bow’s Lagoon. Thoughtfulness, intent, and context will be emphasized. This class is beginner-friendly, and will serve as an introduction to metal fabrication and finishing.

CONTAINER TECHNOLOGIES

with Lesley Jackson

SCULPTURE | 677 001 | 3 CREDITS $200 LAB FEE | JULY 30 - AUGUST 12

This course explores the fundamentals of metalworking through the conceptual lens of holding, containment, and display. Projects will delve into the history of handmade containers - hooks, hangers, boxes, lockets, vessels, reliquaires, pedestals, frames - as points of entry into new objects, from the functional to the absurd. We would explore the container as a tool for holding and as a means of veneration - creating spaces for things to be seen, held, interacted with, and cared for. Some craft traditions we make look to include the hand-forged steel hook, Shaker box-making, and medieval reliquaries and their corresponding rituals. Readings may include “Container Technologies” by Zoë Sophia, “Things” by Bill Brown, and “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” by Ursula Le Guin. Using the starting point of simple hook making, we will build knowledge and momentum toward individual projects which may focus on container archetypes; the box, something that protects and the stand, something that displays. Both sheet metal fabrications and bar, rod, and behind techniques would be demonstrated in service of these assignments. This class will culminate in a group work share of each student’s final project.

MULTI LEVEL FOUNDRY

with Brent Harris

SCULPTURE | 660 001 | 3 CREDITS $350 LAB FEE | AUGUST 13 - 26

In this multilevel metal casting course, students will learn the fundamentals of pattern generation, simple and multipart mold making techniques with sodium silicate bonded sand, casting with bronze, aluminum, and finishing and patination techniques for their castings. Explorations will be informed by the materiality of molten metal and molding processes, the history and technologies of metal casting, and discussion of cast metal sculpture in contemporary art. In the spirit of there is no “I” in foundry, teamwork and safe foundry practices form the foundation of the course. Students will be encouraged to experiment and respond to the natural environment with patterns made at Ox-Bow in an open-air sculpture studio. (center) Barb Smith, Object (about eyes), 2018, hydrocal, paraffin wax, expansion cement, Aqua-Resin, two months of making strata, 4 x 6 x 3 in.

John Preus, Stoop #5, 2020, found fabrics collected from Chicago alleyways and thrift stores, 24 x 40 x 28 in.

Left) Brent Harris, Untitled Doe, 2021, ceramics and acrylic, 17 in. long

Chris Bradley, Chip, 2016, painted cast bronze, 1 x 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.

Jessee Rose Crane, Doozy, 2017, mixed media, found objects, steel, wood, bronze, magnifying lenses, 8 x 3 x 9 ft.

(bottom right) Lesley Jackson, Baudelaire's Key Holder, 2022, blackened steel, mirror, found candlestick, Douglas fir, ribbon, rock. 22 x 6 x 30 in.