Alain
Kirili
March 11 to April 24, 2004
Essays
- Paul Audi
- Sarah Lewis
- William Jeffett
Anachronism as a sign of freedom
A message from Alain Kirili to the students of the New
York Studio School
At the opening of this show, I had an "artists' chat" with Ellen Phelan and Joel Shapiro. There were looking at my sculptures"Communion" and the "Segou" group. Joel mentioned the difference of the craft forging quality of "Segou" compared with the industrial power hammer marks in Communion. I was so pleased to speak with an artist who knows the difference between casting and forging and even between the craft of blacksmithery and the industrial marks of an electric power hammer. Such conversation is so rare today that I told Joel and Ellen it was dinosaur talk. Ellen added that it was more talk between fossils.
To me, this all means that my work is not on the "cutting age" of what is going on. The rush to the new can be a form of self-persecution, a denial of your freedom of spirit, of your independence. My deep need for tactility in art has nothing to do with strategy, it is more a way to survive with my own dignity.
At the time when I start out as an artist, the art world was so theoretical, conceptual and virtual that I felt deeply frustrated. I had to react : modeling and forging were my choice by instinct. I knew very well that those activities were absolutely timeless and did not carry the label of modernism. I did accept the risk of anachronism; maybe the way a great predecessor like Matisse did as well. But it paid off by giving me a sense of serenity, keeping me away from the frenetic art world.
My sculptures are not amnesiac, they have deep affinities with different times and civilizations. I just want to say to the students of this wonderful school that they should enjoy learning to draw from nature and from the live model. It will give them the beauty of choice and a great sense of freedom.
Alain Kirili, March 16, 2004
photography by Christian Carone unless otherwise indicated