In Translation: Digits of Hand and Machine
William Ganis
Though hardly intended as such, the "Digital Stone Exhib1t1on·· is an
elegant expression of contemporary social and economic realtues
I! 1s also a marker of a cultural moment 1n which China, recently an
exporter of amsts such as Xu Bing and Cal Guo Ouiang to the 1nternat1onal community has opened newly formed cultural ms111ut1ons to
artists from around the world Of course, these cultural changes work
hand-in-hand with China's economic ascendancy This show b11ngs
together China's characteristic w1ll·to-production and Silicon Valley's
1nnovat1ons. all translated through the temperaments of four artJsts
now prac11c1ng in the US: Bruce Beasley, Jon Isherwood. Robert M1·
chael Smith and Kenneth Snelson.
Translation and cultural percepuon 1s a consistent theme among
prominent Chinese artists. whether one considers the transliterated
Tang poetry m1scommunicat1ons 1n Wenda Gu's Forest of Scone Stele
(1993·20051 or the invented language in Xu Bing's A Book from rhe
Sky(19881 . Though the cross-<:ultural recepuon of the "Digital Stone"
monuments is yet to come. already there is a formidable challenge
1n translation as sculptures conceived and modeled using d1g1tal processes are rendered by Chinese artisans using both traditional and
contemporary carving techniques and tools.
We have seen such paradoxical mediations m recent history. namely
1n art labeled "Photorealist" Working from photographs. arusts such
as Chuck Close, Howard Kanov1tz and Gerhard Richter hand-rendered
lens-based images 1n order to c1111que widely held assumpuons about
photography's immediacy and ab1hty to produce documentary reality
The painterly touch and limitations in producing details and gradauons
announced the labor, not 1ust of pamung, but the decisions involved
in photographic composing. framing. lighting, shooting and technical
process. In the "D191tal Stone" exhib111on. the hand-hewn translauon
of computer-aided design !CAD! models and rapid prototyped (RP)
maquettes into monumental stone pieces allows today's viewers to
reevaluate their assumptions about d1g1tal design It's much harder
to m1sperce1ve these pieces as mere robo-sculpture given the stone
carver's artisinal mediation. Surely, the hand re-humanizes the work
and the finishing becomes metonym1c- the surface reminds us of a
process that is labored, not automatic. The artist is directly involved
iust only m conceiving the forms, but in rendering and refining in 3Dmodeltng software. assembltng data obtained from scans. optim1z1ng
files for rapid-prototyping, strategiz1ng RP scaffolding and output.
refining these models into functional maquettes. and direcung the
skilled carvers both remotely and on-site.
30 model of Isherwood's Burning through History
Criticism and reception of Photorealtsm has vacillated between dismissal of the stra tegies as mere craft and celebrauon of them as
challenges to habitual readings regarding representation. While d1g1tal
technologies are certainly capable of making photo-venst1c threed1mensional representations (as evidenced in sculptures by Karin
Sander, Richard Dupont or Barry X Ball) the "Digital Stone" artists
have chosen abstracted forms based on geomet11es and b1omorphs.
While digital tools are exceptionally well suited for realizing complex
structures or organic forms. the resulting designs are marked by cool
precision and unyielding regulanues. Works executed though comput-
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er·a1ded manufacture (CAM) processes are becoming more-and-more
commonplace, and the mechanized. feush1suc f1n1shes in new monumental pieces by Tony Cragg and Sol Lewin offer excellent recent
examples • D1g1tal Stone" offers something more as its artists have
created works that anuc1pate and address the confluence of machine
design and manual execuuon
The visual "error" exposes the photorealist's hand and causes a perceptive shift from photography to pa1nt1ng; the viewer can discern
smallest inexact1tiudes that betray rendering by people. not machines As good and careful as the "D1g1tal Stone" exh1b1t1on artisans
are. there 1s no way t1ust as Warhol was unable in hos all-te<rhuman
handling) to be a machine. "Organic" and "mechanized" may seem
like d1ametnc poles. but CAD programs facilitate complex constructions The d1g11al sketches and models by Robert Smith and Jon Is~
erwood have stroking regularity among the fractals. planar d1stort1ons
and hyperbolic forms Isherwood's Burning Through History (2008).
for instance. seems to have •ts own tectonics while his A Fish our
of Water (2008) 1s overlaid wnh unrelenung waves to make manifest
aqueous opucal effects Turned over to the artisans. the models are
enlarged and the carvers carefully consider another visual elementthe natural panerns of granite. marble and other stones
Sm11h's Chaurauquanrumandala (20081 maps a progression and regression of elements that seem hke animation frozen in space. One
might imagine this form as an invertebrate tha1 demonsirates the
universal regularity known as ·Phi;· or one may en111s1on a single
alien form animated in Cub<rfutunst spatial amb1gu1t1es On the other
hand, Ou1~011CAqua11cErot1ca 12008) bursis forth with hie as Smith
uses three-dimensional modeling programs to 1nvest1ga1e complexyet-regular structures encountered in nature-he 1m1tates the growth
of fan1as11c organs on 1mag1ned bodies Smith is a cemf1ed diver and
in recent pieces seems to take many cues from sea forms. that. like
the virtual CAD modeling space. are freed from gravity's relentless
cons1ra1nt Ultimately, 1he carver's tabor adds warm1h and irregularity
to the overall design-the parabolas are 1us1 not consistent. the com·
plex surfaces not quite level
Bruce Beasley's geometries 1n Refuge of the Moon I and II (both
2008) demand d1sc1phne in their execution, especially as 1hey are a
series of interlocking disks. In Baroque Europe, 1he ability to draw a
perfec1 circle without the aid of tools was considered the mark of the
accomplished and sensruve amst Beasley presents a challenge-<:an
the hand-hewn achieve the machine's perfection' Will the artisans be
able to realize consistently flat planes ,and perfect circles in stone?
Will the viewer perceive this med1at1on w11h or without a comparawe
RP or CAD model'
With their 1nterst1ces and spheres w1th1n spheres. Kenne1h Snelson's
a1om1c models. especially Dark Matter (2008) and Holding Pattern
(20081 evoke the Conrrefaitkugeln made in ivory and wood by seventeenth-century European maestros. Snelson may not be making hollow balls s1tua1ed inside other empty balls, nevertheless. 1he forms
are very complex and require skilled undercumng, drilling and rifling
for 1he1r realiza11on . Incidentally, deep and detailed undercuts are
easy to achieve 1n an RP build but 1mposs1ble with computer-numenccontrolled m1lhng-such shaping requires traditional techniques
For four sculptors who have for more than a decade developed and
explored dignal design and execution, this return to hand modeling
reopens figural poss1b1h11es.
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30 model of Sm11n·s Chdurauquantum.Jndalo
As innovators who have used and driven these technologies' developments. the four "D1g1tal Stone" artists offer perspectives as early· and
power-adopters. D1g1tal modeling. prototyping and manufacture have
collectively become the new paradigm for env1s1oning our designed
ob1ects and environments. Like photography in the m1d·nineteenth
century, digital v1s1on has become so pervasive as to seem 1mmed1·
ate This exh1b1tion's artists and artisans offer contrad1c11ons by re·
introducing the human hand to challenge the 1mmed1acy of planes.
sines and polygons Their willingness to move beyond "pure" (for·
mahstl media realizations by means of virtual modeling or computer
manufacture connotes a conceptual maturity by which they embrace
a full range of techr11ques necessary to achieve their 1nd1vidual goals.
Rather than favoring the retrograde, in this exh1b111on's proving ground
they do not impose limits on themselves. but push the technologies
towards yet-to-be-realized expressions through a marriage of tech·
niques both ume-honored and cunmg-edge
Rap.d 1><otorypo of Snelson·s
/Jalk Maner
As a crwc. W1ll1am V Ganis investigates the relat1onsh1ps among contemporary afl. media technologies and an markets. He 1s an Assistant Professor of An History at Wells College in New York where he
also the 01fector of the school's Stflng Room Gallery He has formerly
caught arr history at Stony Brook University. New York Umversny and
the New York Jnsmute of Technology. His reviews and ante/es have
been published in numerous magazine and journals including An in
Ameflca. Border Crossings. Contemporary. Ahenmage and Sculpture.
His book. Andy Warhol's Sena/ Photography was published by Cam·
bndge University Press m 2004.
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