'Self Portrait, 2009' and 'Candle Ice, 1999' Unveiled at Yukon Arts Centre
November 18, 2009 Filed in: Unveilings
LINK: Watch Shane's Artist Talk at the Yukon Arts Centre
Text:
Mary Bradshaw, Director, Yukon Arts Centre Gallery
Beside me here is Shane Wilson, as many of you know. He is a long-time Yukoner, although he has defected to Vancouver Island, B.C., although he still definitely has a strong connection here and we are really excited to have his pieces of art in our collection to share with you and Yukoners.
Shane Wilson, Sculptor, introduced by Mary Bradshaw, YAC Gallery Director (photo by Kathy Bowers)
Shane is a master carver in antler, bone, horn, mammoth tusk, stone and now bronze. This is actually my first time seeing his bronze work, so it's quite exciting.
Shane has donated "Candle Ice", which is just around the corner. This piece has been in our collection since December, 2008. We just quietly put it out there and so now is our official, "Look, here it is!" A brand new piece that's just, literally, finished this year, "Self Portrait", is on the plinth. That's musk ox horn, bronze and jade. Shane's going to talk about each of the pieces individually after I'm done here.
This piece here, with the moose antlers, is going to Haines Junction and we are just getting a sneak peak. It's official unveiling is Saturday in Haines Junction.
So, let me hand it over to Shane and just say, more than anything, maybe we can give him a really big hand of applause, it's just a really big thank you! Shane is tremendously kind, he's humble, and super talented and we're really excited to be working with him.
Piers McDonald and Shane Wilson, Sculptor, at YAC Gallery unveiling (photo by Jack Bowers)
Shane Wilson, Sculptor
Art, at least art as I know it, comes out of the right brain, so it's not language based. There are concepts and ideas that percolate in our right brains that come out as images, that come out as flashes of inspiration, that come out as all kinds of different things.
And my art, at least the art you are seeing here tonight, is primarily that, it's right brainish kind of stuff. And then what happens is that as you create it, sometimes you don't really know why, but as you go along your left brain figures out what you're doing and provides a narrative.
Text:
Mary Bradshaw, Director, Yukon Arts Centre Gallery
Beside me here is Shane Wilson, as many of you know. He is a long-time Yukoner, although he has defected to Vancouver Island, B.C., although he still definitely has a strong connection here and we are really excited to have his pieces of art in our collection to share with you and Yukoners.
Shane Wilson, Sculptor, introduced by Mary Bradshaw, YAC Gallery Director (photo by Kathy Bowers)
Shane is a master carver in antler, bone, horn, mammoth tusk, stone and now bronze. This is actually my first time seeing his bronze work, so it's quite exciting.
Shane has donated "Candle Ice", which is just around the corner. This piece has been in our collection since December, 2008. We just quietly put it out there and so now is our official, "Look, here it is!" A brand new piece that's just, literally, finished this year, "Self Portrait", is on the plinth. That's musk ox horn, bronze and jade. Shane's going to talk about each of the pieces individually after I'm done here.
This piece here, with the moose antlers, is going to Haines Junction and we are just getting a sneak peak. It's official unveiling is Saturday in Haines Junction.
So, let me hand it over to Shane and just say, more than anything, maybe we can give him a really big hand of applause, it's just a really big thank you! Shane is tremendously kind, he's humble, and super talented and we're really excited to be working with him.
Piers McDonald and Shane Wilson, Sculptor, at YAC Gallery unveiling (photo by Jack Bowers)
Shane Wilson, Sculptor
Art, at least art as I know it, comes out of the right brain, so it's not language based. There are concepts and ideas that percolate in our right brains that come out as images, that come out as flashes of inspiration, that come out as all kinds of different things.
And my art, at least the art you are seeing here tonight, is primarily that, it's right brainish kind of stuff. And then what happens is that as you create it, sometimes you don't really know why, but as you go along your left brain figures out what you're doing and provides a narrative.
An artist friend of mine calls it "Art bullshit." But I think he's wrong. I think what it is, is that you are trying to describe what it is that you're doing as an artist. So I'll try to do that tonight.
Shane Wilson, Sculptor, discusses 'Candle Ice, 1999' at YAC Gallery unveiling (photo by Kathy Bowers)
CANDLE ICE, 1999
So, regarding this, it's moose antler. The most often asked question: is it all one piece? And it is. It's carved to look like a bunch of different shards. I call it "Candle Ice." You know in the Yukon, in the springtime and you're walking along the river and the ice is rotting or breaking up ... that cool, tinkly stuff? Hence the name: "Candle Ice."
Let's move on the other piece that's donated to the Arts Centre.
SELF PORTRAIT, 2009
This is musk ox horn and the skull is a wolf skull made out of bronze, carved in an abstract fashion. It's on a plexiglass pillar and hovering over a jade boulder. It took about eight hundred to nine hundred hours to make over two years.
It's the most difficult material I've ever carved because it's composed of hairs. All horn is basically hair that's glued together, but this horn's hairs are almost like strands of steel.
But what does it mean?
Well, as I looked at this over the years before I did it, I thought that it was kind of like life. You start here and it's kind of black and small, it's like being born out of darkness. Then you grow and develop. You have thoughts and ideas. You accomplish things. You come to middle age and you have a bit of a break, you know, the 'mid-life crisis' or whatever you want to call it. Where you reassess your priorities in life and you buy a Porche, or something like that. And then the second half of life is really for you. You've decided what you are all about and the second half is you writing your own rules and doing your own thing. And then, of course, you die at the end. And that's life.
It's a psychological self portrait because all these little shapes and doodles and swirls all mean something to me. But I'm not actually going to go through that because that would be boring and it really doesn't matter. The point is that it's the stuff of life.
Shane Wilson, Sculptor, discusses 'Self Portrait, 2009' at YAC Gallery unveiling (photo by Kathy Bowers)
I left some of the raw horn, though I polished it up, but it's basically what the actual surface of the horn looks like, because in life there are always those things you aren't proud of, the dross of life. You know when a glacier goes down (the mountain) it throws out rocks to the side, well these (parts of the sculpture) are kind of the lateral moraines of life, represented by the raw horn and the real stuff is in the middle.
Then on top of that is another meaning.
As an artist, you leave two things: you leave your art and you leave your bones when you die. It's a bit morbid, but it's what artists think about, mortality and so on. So this is me (referring to the bronze wolf skull), my bones. It was a human skull initially but it was too much. So it became a wolf's skull because it actually looks a little better. It looks kind of like a bird or a pterodactyl. It's meant to be on an angle, it's looking forward to the future.
The other thing about your bones is that they study peoples' bones to see about their life, what they ate and how they lived, so you can see the abstract stuff that's built into the bones as well (evidence of life as an artist).
And this (the set of horns) would be the art that you leave behind. Or in the case of (non-artists) your life work, whatever that might be.
Audience Question:
Where's the Porche?
Shane Wilson, Sculptor
The Porche? Well, I actually don't have a Porche. (Laugh) But there's always hope.
Sharing a humourous moment during the unveiling of 'Self Portrait, 2009' (photo by Kathy Bowers)
Any questions about this one, beside the Porche?
Audience Question:
What about the jade?
Shane Wilson, Sculptor
It actually goes kinda well and I designed the bronze to have a patina that was like jade. It's dark so that it picks up these colours (black tips of the horns) and green so that it picks up the jade. (The boulder represents) your ground in life.
Audience Question:
So did you make it like a cast?
Shane Wilson, Sculptor
Yes. I had an actual wolf skull and I took a mold off the wolf skull and I poured wax into the mold and I carved the wax and sent the wax to the foundry. The foundry turned it into bronze, sent it back to me then I carved it up a bit better and put the patina on.
Shane Wilson, Sculptor, discusses 'Gaia, 2009' at YAC Gallery unveiling (photo by Kathy Bowers)
This one is part of a series of skulls. I did a bunch of bronze skulls a few years ago and donated them to the Haines Junction Permanent Art Collection: wolf skull, bear skulls, human skulls, etc. But they wanted a moose skull, so this is final piece for them. It's not only a moose skull, but a moose skull with carved antlers.
This is definitely a sculpture that came out of the right brain to begin with and slowly started to take shape as I went along.
I call it "Gaia." I don't know how many of you have read The Vanishing Face of Gaia by James Lovelock? The whole premise is that the earth is a living organism, it can self regulate, and at this point we (humans) are a bit like a virus and the earth is going to heat up in order to kill us off and then it will cool back down, over hundreds of thousands of years. But what he says is that if we are smart, we can learn how to co-exist with the earth instead of being parasitic upon it. And this (the sculpture) is about co-existence. The essential point is that it is meant to be a representation of, perhaps, the earth of the future when we are a conscious partner living in a symbiotic relationship with the earth.
And that's it, thank you very much for coming.
Kathy and Jack Bowers, photographers and friends, at YAC Gallery unveiling
Shane Wilson, Sculptor, discusses 'Candle Ice, 1999' at YAC Gallery unveiling (photo by Kathy Bowers)
CANDLE ICE, 1999
So, regarding this, it's moose antler. The most often asked question: is it all one piece? And it is. It's carved to look like a bunch of different shards. I call it "Candle Ice." You know in the Yukon, in the springtime and you're walking along the river and the ice is rotting or breaking up ... that cool, tinkly stuff? Hence the name: "Candle Ice."
Let's move on the other piece that's donated to the Arts Centre.
SELF PORTRAIT, 2009
This is musk ox horn and the skull is a wolf skull made out of bronze, carved in an abstract fashion. It's on a plexiglass pillar and hovering over a jade boulder. It took about eight hundred to nine hundred hours to make over two years.
It's the most difficult material I've ever carved because it's composed of hairs. All horn is basically hair that's glued together, but this horn's hairs are almost like strands of steel.
But what does it mean?
Well, as I looked at this over the years before I did it, I thought that it was kind of like life. You start here and it's kind of black and small, it's like being born out of darkness. Then you grow and develop. You have thoughts and ideas. You accomplish things. You come to middle age and you have a bit of a break, you know, the 'mid-life crisis' or whatever you want to call it. Where you reassess your priorities in life and you buy a Porche, or something like that. And then the second half of life is really for you. You've decided what you are all about and the second half is you writing your own rules and doing your own thing. And then, of course, you die at the end. And that's life.
It's a psychological self portrait because all these little shapes and doodles and swirls all mean something to me. But I'm not actually going to go through that because that would be boring and it really doesn't matter. The point is that it's the stuff of life.
Shane Wilson, Sculptor, discusses 'Self Portrait, 2009' at YAC Gallery unveiling (photo by Kathy Bowers)
I left some of the raw horn, though I polished it up, but it's basically what the actual surface of the horn looks like, because in life there are always those things you aren't proud of, the dross of life. You know when a glacier goes down (the mountain) it throws out rocks to the side, well these (parts of the sculpture) are kind of the lateral moraines of life, represented by the raw horn and the real stuff is in the middle.
Then on top of that is another meaning.
As an artist, you leave two things: you leave your art and you leave your bones when you die. It's a bit morbid, but it's what artists think about, mortality and so on. So this is me (referring to the bronze wolf skull), my bones. It was a human skull initially but it was too much. So it became a wolf's skull because it actually looks a little better. It looks kind of like a bird or a pterodactyl. It's meant to be on an angle, it's looking forward to the future.
The other thing about your bones is that they study peoples' bones to see about their life, what they ate and how they lived, so you can see the abstract stuff that's built into the bones as well (evidence of life as an artist).
And this (the set of horns) would be the art that you leave behind. Or in the case of (non-artists) your life work, whatever that might be.
Audience Question:
Where's the Porche?
Shane Wilson, Sculptor
The Porche? Well, I actually don't have a Porche. (Laugh) But there's always hope.
Sharing a humourous moment during the unveiling of 'Self Portrait, 2009' (photo by Kathy Bowers)
Any questions about this one, beside the Porche?
Audience Question:
What about the jade?
Shane Wilson, Sculptor
It actually goes kinda well and I designed the bronze to have a patina that was like jade. It's dark so that it picks up these colours (black tips of the horns) and green so that it picks up the jade. (The boulder represents) your ground in life.
Audience Question:
So did you make it like a cast?
Shane Wilson, Sculptor
Yes. I had an actual wolf skull and I took a mold off the wolf skull and I poured wax into the mold and I carved the wax and sent the wax to the foundry. The foundry turned it into bronze, sent it back to me then I carved it up a bit better and put the patina on.
Shane Wilson, Sculptor, discusses 'Gaia, 2009' at YAC Gallery unveiling (photo by Kathy Bowers)
This one is part of a series of skulls. I did a bunch of bronze skulls a few years ago and donated them to the Haines Junction Permanent Art Collection: wolf skull, bear skulls, human skulls, etc. But they wanted a moose skull, so this is final piece for them. It's not only a moose skull, but a moose skull with carved antlers.
This is definitely a sculpture that came out of the right brain to begin with and slowly started to take shape as I went along.
I call it "Gaia." I don't know how many of you have read The Vanishing Face of Gaia by James Lovelock? The whole premise is that the earth is a living organism, it can self regulate, and at this point we (humans) are a bit like a virus and the earth is going to heat up in order to kill us off and then it will cool back down, over hundreds of thousands of years. But what he says is that if we are smart, we can learn how to co-exist with the earth instead of being parasitic upon it. And this (the sculpture) is about co-existence. The essential point is that it is meant to be a representation of, perhaps, the earth of the future when we are a conscious partner living in a symbiotic relationship with the earth.
And that's it, thank you very much for coming.
Kathy and Jack Bowers, photographers and friends, at YAC Gallery unveiling