|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Cynthia Sah: The Power of Marble
| Article
# : |
11112 |
|
|
Section : |
THE ARTS
|
| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1993 |
2,390 Words |
| Author
: |
Scarlet Cheng
Scarlet Cheng, based in Los Angeles, is a contributing editor
to the arts section of The World & I. |
"What appeals to me about marble is that it is a very lively material," says Chinese sculptor Cynthia Sah, talking about her favorite medium. "They say if you don't have a passion for working marble, you just can't do it. It becomes a stress and a fight--the stone will just fight you. If you understand it, it's really like cutting into butter."
Her hands mold around a small piece she is finishing on her lap. She is sanding the edges down to a shape she finds beautiful. It is repetitive and slow work, sanding marble down by hand with a piece of sandpaper, and also incredibly dusty, but Sah is concentrated and caring as she goes about this one task much of the afternoon.
While expressing herself in words sometimes comes haltingly for Sah, her Minimalist marble and bronze works are eloquent--and elegant. They take on primordial shapes--the sun, the moon, the sea--and classical resonances. While she has been exhibited in the United States, where she received her art training, and in Europe, where she has apprenticed and perfected her craft, today she has gone back to her roots to make her name: in Hong Kong, where she was born in 1952, and in Taiwan, where she grew up.
In these two places she has garnered an increasing following among private collectors and institutions. This year, she was one of nine international artists to win an important sculpture competition held by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. In Hong Kong, Citicorp is commissioning her to execute a large bronze for its office building in the high-profile Central district.
Discovering the Passion
Though Sah was born in Hong Kong, she grew up in Japan and Taiwan. She took a B.A. in psychology at Bard College, in Upstate New York, before switching to what she decided was her true calling during graduate studies at Teachers College at Columbia University, in New York City.
"I just knew that I had to try sculpture," she says in a series of interviews conducted at her workshop in Pietrasanta, Italy, this spring. "I'm a very manual person. I like physical and manual work. I took a course in sculpture at Teachers College and just got lost in it. I would just work and work, sometimes past midnight." While at Teachers College, she went to the Art Institute in Pietrasanta on a school-sponsored studio art program in the summer of 1978. Pietrasanta, which means "holy stone," is a small Tuscan town of
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
