Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Catalog essay
Audience(s)
VERSO L’ARTE edizioni:
What audience are their titles addressing? Comfortable with art‐speak. Generally
versed in the exhibition experience
What can you learn about their target audiences from other exhibition catalogs they
have published?
Don’t worry too much about Carlini as a reader!
Goals
Interpretive
Engage and/or inform reader in relation to concepts/themes
Possible focal points:
• Carlini’s creative process, her materials
• Learning through all the senses
• Blending the historical and the primordial.
• Evocation of the ancient
• Sculpture and the platform/base/pedestal.
• (All the above seem related to how Carlini translates time into space.)
• If the Italians want you to include some sort of American/Italian discussion, there’s lots
you can say about the representation of the passage of time or the forces of nature.
Talk about the pieces being seen in an American setting – leads one to contemplate the
difference between an European experience of the works vs. an American experience also
the understanding of passage of time and origins/ primordial. Concept of what you create
from …. The relationship of the European to history and art history.
Range and Focus
What relationship do you want to have between text and image/object in the catalog?
Compare the Madrid, Opera‐Ambiente Carlini Catalog with the Morelli Catalog.
Space Requirements (column inches).
Curator’s selections
MONUMENTS
1.) Madre
I chose it because it is a beautiful composition of geometric elements. The steel sculpture is a
cracked sphere reminiscent of a globe. Could Madre evoke a different sort of mother earth? This
hollow sculpture made out of COR‐TEN steel has a cracked crust and is in a state of disrepair. The
artist’s mother earth is not a bountiful one, but rather a rigid and broken monument to the earth.
Structure
Madre is made up of two steel elements, a sphere and a cube. The sphere rests atop a COR‐
TEN pedestal. It is elevated to 170cm and is brought squarely to eye level.
The elevated steel base – object is made precious
The gaze – viewer looks upon the object on a pedestal
Confrontation – the object sits as a barrier – direct eye contact
The globular shaped sphere, unlike the earth, is hollow and besides her choice of material,
evokes the feeling of lightness. The artist states one of her objectives is to interpret the
essence of the primordial earth.
Creator/Creation
It is the first creators, the first mothers that Carlini is interested in…. the act of creating.
The cracked globe reminds me of the discarded skin of a reptile. Madre looks like the remains of
the top layer of the earth shed and left behind. The empty space in the center
Is Carlini stating that the earth is in disrepair? Or can she be talking about the formation of the
earth and tectonic plates?
The title of this work, Madre, exemplifies many things about Carlini. She is an artist, mother,
and grandmother. Carlini is innately a creator. The essence of her work is the physicality of the
objet and its material nature. When I asked Carlini about her creative process she explained to
me the need to create. While trying to find the English words to describe her natural desire to
create she molded the air with her hands, as if she was molding clay. The artist’s creative needs
are met through the touch, feel, and handling of the matter literally between her fingers.
• Carlini’s creative process, her materials
♦ Carlini’s process for creating Madre was the same as the other large sculptures.
First she fashions a maquette from clay and then the sculpture was formed from
more industrial materials.
♦ Transforming the sculpture in both scale and materials had a large effect on the
concept of the piece. Because of the clay material, he maquette has a small
conceptual gap when translating the sculpture into a form of Mother Earth’s crust.
By choosing steel for the sculpture, Carlini Madre transformed the sculpture into an
abstraction of the concept.
• Learning through all the senses
♦ The steel edges of the sculpture are smooth and ridged. The edges that show are
sanded down in a uneven fashion and treated with a dull gold finish. If one were to
run a finger down the edges it would feel like tracing the horizon of a mountain
range with your finger. The edges are organically uneven edges form a fluid line
that traces in and out of the sculpture.
♦ The steel is filled with sensory contradictions. It is as thin as the cover of a text book
and as solid as the hood of a car.
♦ The body of Madre is composed of several sheets of steel. The sheets are welded
together with pools of sadder (not sure if that’s the correct technical term). Sadder
joints can we seen both internally and externally in the sculpture. They read as a
linear story of a connection. One can find points where the connection needed to
be stronger because of external elements (like gravity) and there are other sections
that needed merely a tap weld.
♦ The welds are not manicured, they are allowed to serve their function and are not
hidden.
♦ The sheets of metal fit together in geometric patters but they all come together in
the center of the sphere. The division of the sculpture into hemispheres…...
♦ The oxidization of the sculpture is largely on the exterior of the sphere and the base
of the interior of the sphere. The oxidization makes the sculpture seem like its
aware of gravity (unlike a true earth, which floats in space).
• Blending the historical and the primordial.
• Evocation of the ancient
The ancient comes through in this sculpture through its ties to the concept of
mother earth.
In some ways Madre evokes contemporary perception, the idea of the globe
references the concept of earth after Aristotle.
• Sculpture and the platform/base/pedestal.
Two geometric forms – the rectangle and the sphere
The geometric base comes from a long lineage of forms used to elevate the
importance of an object. Greeks and Romans commonly used pedestals for
monuments and significant architectural elements.
Pedestal (from French piedestal, Italian piedistallo, foot of
a stall) (http://en.wikipedia.org/)
• (All the above seem related to how Carlini translates time into space.)
• If the Italians want you to include some sort of American/Italian discussion, there’s lots
you can say about the representation of the passage of time or the forces of nature.
Historically, Italian works are known for their use of pedestals.
Americans are popular for taking sculpture off of the pedestal
2.) Inizio, 2008
The step like elements added to this piece look like a continuation of the concept of Madre.
This piece is a nice work to place next to Madre because it will demonstrate the continuation of
a concept as well as the exploration into the cube (pedestal shape) and sphere.
1. Carlini’s creative process, her materials
2. Learning through all the senses
a.
3. Blending the historical and the primordial.
a. The title ‐ begin, or I begin
b. The geometric arrangement of the base rectangle sculpture
alludes to Darwinian evolution…. The sculpture has a upward
composition, moving towards the sphere
i. Sense of creation and destruction….. possible entropy
4. Evocation of the ancient
a. Is it an interpretation of the beginning of time or the building of
5. Sculpture and the platform/base/pedestal.
a. The base of the sculpture is not only what the sphere rests atop.
It is a base in the sense of the word… it is one thing which the
sculpture grows out of.
b. The “base” of the sculpture is treated with the most oxidization.
It is evident that the artist chose to induce the rusting process
by the drips of rust that sink down the edges of the base.
i. Here the sculpture forms from the pedestal‐like base.
The sphere emerges from a succession of cubes and
rectangles emerging from a large rectangular base
6. If the Italians want you to include some sort of American/Italian
discussion, there’s lots you can say about the representation of the
passage of time or the forces of nature.
3.) Letteratura, 2007
I chose this sculpture because it hearkens back to modernist American sculpture like Richard
Serra. The lines are clean and the shape is monolithic. The sculpture feels elegant because of its
poise and strong because of the material. This sculpture is a bold piece that speaks of sculptures
past.
• Carlini’s creative process, her materials
• Learning through all the senses
♦ The sculpture is composed of one basic form, that of an open book. The form is
repeated three times in varying heights.
• Blending the historical and the primordial.
• Evocation of the ancient
Title makes the ones interpret the form as contemporary, as the essence or
formal qualities of literature
Carlini has made the form of a book a monument. The act of enlarging the form
of the book to the height of a one story building
The form of literature is there and yet the traditional contents of a book, the
words, are not.
Is Carlini commenting on the value of knowledge that cannot be taught with
books or is she building a monument to liturature?
• Sculpture and the platform/base/pedestal.
♦ The base of letteratura is the thinnest part of the sculpture.
♦ It seems to serve a functional purpose. The base of the sculpture allows for a
simpler placement of the piece in varying circumstances. Letteratura has traveled
from Milan, to Paris, to Madrid and now to Denver because it can simply be placed
onto a level surface.
• (All the above seem related to how Carlini translates time into space.)
materials – the contolled oxidization of the metal
• the exposure to natural elements sun, weather, etc.
• If the Italians want you to include some sort of American/Italian discussion, there’s lots
you can say about the representation of the passage of time or the forces of nature.
4.) Mistero, 2008
I chose the aspens because it’s a piece that is easily accepted by novice viewers. It is easily
accepted mainly because the contrast between the geometric forms and the natural forms of
the aspens. Contrast is easy to comprehend and natural elements are proven to be well‐
received by naves audiences. This would be a good sculpture to place in Denver and not on the
college campus.
1. Carlini’s creative process, her materials
2. Learning through all the senses
3. Blending the historical and the primordial.
a. Is she talking about the mystery of the organic (the aspens) or
the man made element (the steel)
4. Evocation of the ancient
a. Title ‐ Mystery
5. Sculpture and the platform/base/pedestal.
6. (All the above seem related to how Carlini translates time into space.)
7. If the Italians want you to include some sort of American/Italian
discussion, there’s lots you can say about the representation of the
passage of time or the forces of nature.
8. What draws viewers to something that they find familiar? Like aspens…
Why is it easily accepted… viewer psychology??
5.) Have yet to choose this work
1. Carlini’s creative process, her materials
2. Learning through all the senses
3. Blending the historical and the primordial.
4. Evocation of the ancient
5. Sculpture and the platform/base/pedestal.
6. (All the above seem related to how Carlini translates time into space.)
7. If the Italians want you to include some sort of American/Italian
discussion, there’s lots you can say about the representation of the
passage of time or the forces of nature.
MAQUETTES
(Provide listing of specific maquettes)
*selected later
Carlini and Her Materials
Carlini works with the materials and does not fight their innate tendencies. She complies with the
properties of the materials. Madre, like much of Carlini’s work is a unique combination of strength and
fragility. Like the earth, the materials she chooses weather and age in their outdoor locations.
COR‐TEN steel is a popular choice for contemporary artists working in steel. Richard Serra and Robert
Indiana are among the most popular users of the COR‐TEN steel. COR‐TEN steel is used mainly for its
weathering properties. It is composed with 2% copper, which allows a stable rust appearance to form
after exposure to natural elements. This oxidization of the material is precisely the quality that Carlini is
interested in.
Bolting together COR‐TEN steel slabs are steel loops.
Mending? Repairing? Falling apart? A mark?
The experience of the Curator
The travel of the works overseas
My experience of getting to know these works – such things as touching them. The encounter of the
work, touching it, knowing it and then bringing in associations with it
The more precise I can be…. Describing corrosion of the materials (brings in immediateness)