| Whitney May: Your latest body of work was recently on view at Art Agents Gallery in Hamburg under the (appropriate) exhibition heading “Hover.” How does this architectural and highly intricate portion of your sculptural oeuvre compare to the rest? Do you consider this sculptural style new or old news? Eric Eley: My work has always incorporated architectural elements and has gradually evolved from more enclosed volumes to the linear and planar descriptions of space and form exhibited in “Hover.” Overall, it still feels new because there is so much more to explore. |
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Art Floats – Whitney May
Whitney May: Your latest body of work was recently on view at Art Agents Gallery in Hamburg under the (appropriate) exhibition heading “Hover.” How does this architectural and highly intricate portion of your sculptural oeuvre compare to the rest? Do you consider this sculptural style new or old news?
Eric Eley: My work has always incorporated architectural elements and has gradually evolved from more enclosed volumes to the linear and planar descriptions of space and form exhibited in “Hover.” Overall, it still feels new because there is so much more to explore.
WM: From exactly where do these abstract and not-so-abstract forms originate? Is there any one source of inspiration for each of your pieces?
EE: Rarely is there a singular inspiration for my work. My creations are built from a language developed around the visual authority of lines and planes, as well as their ability to describe not only what they outline and enclose, but also to suggest expansive possibilities for the space that they inhabit. I use rational marks as a starting point to build with, rather than a tool to deconstruct and analyze.
WM: The detail and structural balance present in your works appears incredibly painstaking. Can you even begin to outline your typical creation/construction process?
EE: Construction can be tedious, but I enjoy the work. My questions, memory and intellect are directly tied to how my body physically understands and interacts with material. Having to deal directly with gravity and physics or to find a way around them is essential to how I work. The pull of those forces is my raw material.
The sculptures begin much like a drawing, with a few marks. Those lines, curves or angles tell me where to go next. The exact form of what I am making is never entirely certain, but the overall presence that I want the final object to have is what directs me. Some are over-built and then worked back into, removing unnecessary lines and elements, leaving forms that would not have been apparent without the excess. On large-scale pieces, the way that it will first be seen—how viewers enter the room and move through it—factor into construction. The form often changes significantly as you move around it.
WM: I’m particularly thrilled by your piece Untitled from 2005 (the one featuring the likes of latex, gauze and lead). Is the structure snow-capped or tent-covered, is it a spaceship, ancient dwelling, or nothing at all? It is certainly a structure ungrounded—one that floats above twine lines draped at once ethereally, messily and meticulously, but is anything meant to be tangible or recognizable here? Where did this mysterious edifice come from?
EE: That piece may be all the things you mentioned. It is a ship of sorts, a contained landscape that relates to other things, but is self-sufficient. The twine is draped in a way that suggests a logic and purpose even though there are areas of chaos. The form that emerges gives the sections that are more visually messy a greater sense of purpose. Since there is logic to be found, you assume that it must run throughout the piece, but those steps of that logic are not easily retraced.
WM: Overall, would you describe your sculptural works as more aggressive and confrontational or more quiet, cold and somber?
EE: Definitely not confrontational, but hopefully not cold. The pieces have an air of authority that makes them sit back and that requires the viewer to come and explore rather than forcing itself on them.
WM: From looking at just one or two of your works, it’s obvious that you have an affinity for suspension. Are you more interested in the appearance of the mathematically calculated and arranged twine cable lines employed to create this effect or in the hovering itself?
EE: They can’t really be separated in my mind. The mathematical and the ethereal (hovering) aspects are not mutually exclusive concepts for me. Many ideas and objects retain their mystery and awe no matter how well they are described with numbers and data. The sublime ability of rationality and science to expand the world around you while simultaneously trying to define it will forever fascinate me. Calculation and control are used in my work to find a way to something just beyond my grasp.
WM: Who or what are you influences? Calatrava? Math class? The constructivists themselves?
EE: I do enjoy Calatrava’s work (his models are amazing), but my biggest inspirations are the processes of science. At their highest levels, they seem very similar to art—where there is a question, problem or goal, often creative, and regularly without a pressing reason to explore it other than an individual desire to see where it will lead. There are relatively simple and established building blocks to work with, and the art is in finding the ability to use those simple elements in a way that their effect on each other compounds and multiplies to create or describe something that is beyond their individual possibilities.
WM: What is it that you would most like for a viewer to get out of taking in one of your works?
EE: I’d like them to get the sense of a bird’s-eye view. What they are experiencing is not analytical like a map and it is not earthly, but somewhere in between. The work should evoke the feeling of being in a place where you are a bit outside of your experience, but with a sense of clarity, even if you cannot neatly define what is in front of you.
WM: What’s next for you and your creative work?
EE: The last year has been very busy and I am looking forward to a few quiet months in the studio. There is work to prepare for fairs and things, but, mainly, I am continuing to develop the best of what has come out of this past year’s exhibitions and am working on proposals for some more architecturally scaled pieces.
