Auroral Dreaming new sculptures by Derek Weisberg, opens February 4th, 2011 at Anno Domini Gallery. The following is an interview with Derek about his new solo show-a follow up to his notable exhibition Victoria Everlasting, a visual eulogy to his mother in 2008.
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Looking at your art over the past few years there appears to be an essence about the sculptures that remain common. Do you see your works as having a linear theme?
Yes, I have been working on certain themes or several overarching threads in my work for the last 5 years or so: life and death: mourning, grieving, reconciliation, and growth; life after death: spiritualism or existentialism; death rituals and traditions; vanitas, transcendence and self reflection, human conditions, and human emotions.
I am not sure if the themes are linear or circular or zig zag, or what, but it is a constant pursuit of information, knowledge, truth, and understanding of a common essence.
Sailing in Celestial Skies from Victoria Everlasting exhibition, 2008 A.D.
Victoria Everlasting was a beautiful dedication to your mother...can you share your experience of making the work while grieving and now, some years later, how that experience has affected your work and creative process?
It has been over four years now since my mother has passed and over two since Victoria Everlasting. And again, I feel like I am trying to address the same issues, but as my grieving takes different stages or phases so does the work. Art making for me is (as corny as it may sound) therapeutic, but I don't mean hippy dippy finger painting therapy. I mean, it is an activity of addressing something, digging in and attempting to overcome it. Making art is a pursuit of truth; it is an attempt to answer the unanswerable questions of life. So I make art about my life, my experiences, my world, and what is happening in it; trying to make sense of it all. The passing of my mother was/is a major episode in my life. I feel extremely fortunate to be able to make art, because with each piece of art I made or make I feel like I learn a little bit more, I reconcile further, I understand better, I move one step closer to "truth."
Grieving and making art is a cathartic experience. Four years later, although I am still very sad, and miss my mom everyday, I am in a much better place. Time has an impressive way of leveling. I am at a point where I am making art that deals with ideas of death and my mother but is less direct than Victoria Everlasting. Also some of the ideas of death, which I am dealing with, really have more to do with life and living memory, which seems positive.
There even seems to be a movement from a sense of sadness to one of longing (for understanding, perhaps?) As a sculptor how do you convey such an intangible thought?
Wow, there is so much to this question. I guess I would like to start with the idea that sadness and longing are deeply connected in many ways. I think of Eastern philosophy, and the connectedness of desire and suffering. Longing can create sorrow. Longing is a major thread throughout my work, I suppose I long for many things, and the world is far from perfect leaving much to long for. And even if the world were perfect, in many ways it's the artist's responsibility to always stay in, or be in and out of, a state of longing, desire and perhaps anxiousness. I think this keeps the artist from becoming comfortable, the process of making the work easy, and the work from getting stale. As unhealthy as it may be I want to be in a continual state of longing.
It is a challenge to depict longing and other intangibles such as other emotions, spirituality, and metaphysical ideas as a sculptor. And despite this challenge these have all been major issues I address in my work. Somehow I am reminded of something one of my favorite artists, Leonard Baskin, said, "the human figure contains all and it can express all." That is my goal to use something very real, grounded, and earthly like the human body and through facial features and gestures, body posturing, etc., express "Everything," all these intangibles.
This most recent body of work elaborates on the idea of depicting intangibles, as I was thinking about death, and what happened to my mother after she left this place. Is there such thing as a soul? Does her soul live on? How? As a spirit twinkling in the heavens? As a ghostly angel who waltz's behind me? Does her soul ascend to join the larger divine flame, like in Jewish mysticism? I began wondering what a soul or spirit would look like. How would I sculpt a spirit or a soul in the cosmos? How would I sculpt a setting sun, or an exhausting star supernova, rolling fog or dancing flames? What shape would these formless things take and hold? All this going back to the idea that my mother or anyone who once existed here on earth had a very specific form, and when they die, that form is gone; they become formless. And I the sculptor am making forms, creating objects with a weight, a height, a depth, and a very specific form. In a sense by sculpting the spirits I was "bringing my mother back." I was giving form to something formless.
That Which My Eyes Wish to See, ceramic and mixed media, 58" x 13" x 19", 2010
Your current body of work, Auroral Dreaming, alludes to a desire for those answers you're seeking through your work. Do you expect your art to answer those questions? Does the answer matter?
I am not so egotistical or romantic that I think art can answer problems like starving children or the war in Iraq. But YES, I do expect my art to provide answers, at least partially. And philosophically I don't think that a conclusive answer can ever really be attained. For me, the answers usually come through the process of making, by the time a piece is finished I have usually learned most of what I will learn. Then, hopefully, if the work is successful, the viewer will find his or her own answers in the work. These answers may not and will not be singular or universal, but this is when a relationship between the work and the viewer is formed, a dialogue happens, and a work of art is really successful.
This is the power of art. So does it matter what the answer actually is? Probably not. But does it matter that answers are found? "Yes!"
Auroral Dreaming new sculptures by Derek Weisberg
Exhibition dates: February 4 - March 19, 2011
Artist's Reception: Friday, Feb. 4th, 7pm-11pm
Anno Domini Gallery
San Jose, CA
www.galleryAD.com
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