Tuesday 27 November 2012

Ding-Dong


The recent making of the resin 'bell' reminded me of the last bit of resin work I did years ago - the bone being held up by the couple in the above, rather bad picture taken straight off the net from their publicity photos.

Those two represent the theatre company I used to work for and they are still going strong, but based in Europe these days. They should have got me to make that pediment and pillars too - it's not what you would call 'classical', but I suppose it does have some comic effect.

I said that I would not give a lecture about when a piece of sculptural work can be called one's own and when it cannot, but you know what a complete liar I am, and it's been on my mind for a while now - long before the making of the bell below - so here it is.

Someone who I work quite closely to has been getting sniffy for a long time about how I will always claim any object that comes from my workshop to be my own, just so long as I had total control over the conception and design, and even if I had very little to do with it's physical making.

It has always been like this, ever since any sculpture could be attributed to a single name, way back in ancient Greece and way forward to the workshop of Damien Hirst. Most successful sculpture studios employ teams of other artists and technicians (I know two of Hirst's) and many good sculptors have had very little to do with their pieces after the initial conception.

Did you know, for instance, that August Rodin never carved a single bit of marble in his life?

Well, it all came to a head the other night when I was sitting in the pub next to the slanderer with the new bell hanging up outside in the darkness, and someone asked if it was mine. When I replied that it was, a distinctly sniffy sound came from the bloke sitting beside me, and - knowing that it would be talked about after I had left the house - I decided to nip the negativity in the bud as far as I was able, by giving the bloke - who should have known better - a warning that any more aspersions cast on my work was going to actually lose me money, and I cannot afford that - particularly right now.

The message was delivered with more force than I had intended (I told him to 'keep his fucking mouth shut' at one point), but I do not regret a single word of it.

The Green-Eyed Girl was working behind the bar at the time and witnessed the whole thing.

After I had gone (stormed out, actually) the handful of bar-flies continued with the conversation until Green-Eyes came up to them and said, "Would you mind not slagging-off my grandfather in front of me?" and they stopped.

When she told me about this the next day, I thought that the slanderer should have followed on with his argument by replying, "He's not your grandfather. He had no hand in your making." 

It's true - we are not blood-related, but I have been the biggest, most positive and consistent male influence in her life since her birth, and I think I have a right to call her my own.





22 comments:

  1. Who does your 'friend' think the work SHOULD be attributed to? If something comes from my studio, and I produced it; then it's MINE.

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    1. ... or your erstwhile antique dealer friend...

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  2. I've just been to the Dale Chihuly museum and watched a 2 hour documentary on him and his work. I doubt if he has actually made a piece in the last decade. He is however the creative director and it is his vision that makes it a Chihuly. I think studio members that start to make noises over the attribution are those that are on the verge of breaking out on their own. Whether they succeed or not is in the key. They all think they can do it on their own and make their own name.

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    1. Did I word the above wrongly? I'll have to check it again. It is NOT my glamorous assistant who is kicking up the fuss!

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    2. I misread it Tom. I thought it was your assistant.

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    3. Probably my fault, but I cannot be bothered to change it now - rant over.

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  3. I missed the part about casting the bell in resin, and have puzzled the last several days not only on how you got it up there, but how that building and bracket can support it. That's a load off my mind.

    As to credits, of course it's yours. Your assistant has too much time on his hands to mull over his place in the universe.

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    1. No - it's not my assistant who is complaining - he is just fine about the whole thing. It is someone ENTIRELY different.

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  4. If he doesn't like the fact you're taking all the credit, then he should strike out on his own.

    I, too, am in an occupation where i usually don't get to sign my name to my work, but i do get all the shite that's flung if there's something the client doesn't like--even if i followed his specs to the letter.

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    1. See above comment, and read further above again, please. My assistant is NOT the one complaining!

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  5. In the days when I was chairman of a W I Craft Committee, I used to organise courses on drawing, designing etc. with a chap who had worked in precisely the capacity you outline for Henry Moore for some years. Of course all the great artists have lesser minions to do much of their work, they would never get through it otherwise. I have a feeling that I read that it was also true of the Sistine Chapel ceiling - is that so Tom?

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    1. I think (but am not entirely sure) that the Sistine chapel was the work of several famous fresco painters, but Michelangelo did all his part of it on his own, whilst lying on his back - the lazy bastard.

      TYou don't have to be a minion to help someone else with a commission, though.

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  6. Good for the green eyed girl. She has beautiful eyes.

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    1. Agreed on both counts, Moll. She is wonderful.

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    2. pretty and memorable!
      I have always wanted green eyes

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    3. Only the whites of mine are getting greenish...

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    4. I thought they were usually like two fried eggs in a bucket of blood!

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    5. They were when I was young and healthy.

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    6. I do have green eyes but not as beauitiful as your green eyed girls. Mine are 61 years old and have suffered the abuse of wine and fags ( although I have given the fags up now but I love to sit next to someone who is smoking one !!!!). XXXX

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  7. Of course it's your work -- wouldn't exist without you ... Gorgeous girl and a real darling, to boot!

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