Video Review 3-10-19

This week we watched a video on sculpture called Through the Eyes of the Sculptor, as well as a video about glass and ceramics called Glass and Ceramics. For Through the Eyes of the Sculptor, I learned about the process of sculpture making, which involves a series of specialized sculptors collaborating to create the final artwork. Even in ancient times, there were a series of sculptors working on the same sculpture, which I did not previously know. Emmanuel Fillion, the main character in the video, shows us the entire process of creating his sculpture, from the initial sketch to the final installation. I learned about how the sculpture begins as a sketch, and then the artist makes a small clay model. From there, the sculptor will make a silicone mold, from which they will create a small plaster mold. The small plaster mold will then be used to create a life-sized plaster mold by a formatore—a specialized sculptor who creates large sculptures from smaller ones. From the life-sized plaster sculpture, an artigiano (Italian for “craftsman”), will sculpt the same figure from marble at the same scale. The life-sized marble sculpture will then be shipped back to the original sculptor, who will file down the surfaces to make them smooth. It was fascinating to watch the entire sculpting process and I was surprised to learn that it is the standard tradition to have multiple sculptors collaborate to create a single sculpture. 

In Glass and Ceramics I learned that glass is made from melting silica sand and fluxes—like soda, potash, limestone, or oyster shells—together. It was very interesting to see in the video how a glass blower creates a drinking glass, which is something I have never seen before. I also never knew how stained glass windows were pieced together with lead, and it was interesting to see the process. I learned that depending on the quality of raw materials and the temperature at which they are fired, the quality of a ceramic piece could be as great as fine China, or as poor as a standard brick. I thought that the dry pressing technique for making ceramics was interesting, as opposed to the traditional method of using slip poured into plaster molds. 

Probably the most interesting thing that I learned from the video is that certain ceramics can be made to be harder than steel and to withstand extremely hot temperatures, like the types of ceramics used in surgical hip replacements. Also, the fact that a ceramic car engine could be vastly superior to the standard engine was interesting to learn (and is confusing as to why engines are not made like that today). 

Finally, the ways that glass can be manufactured to reflect light, reflect infrared rays, insulate homes, muffle soundwaves, and shatter in a much safer way, were uses of glass that I have heard about but did not fully understand until I saw the Glass and Ceramics video. 

Both the Through the Eyes of the Sculptor and the Glass and Ceramics videos relate to the Living With Art text by how they all focus on sculpture and the various materials used to create sculpture. The text focuses on the four basic methods of creating a sculpture, which are modeling, casting, carving, and assembling. Modeling is an additive sculptural process because it involves constructing form, usually by using clay, which can easily be added or taken away from the sculpture. Casting is an indirect method of sculpture where molds are created and then a liquid—like plaster, or metals like molten bronze—is poured into it and allowed to cool, creating a hardened form. Carving is a direct, subtractive sculptural process where the sculptor cuts, chips, and gouges away the raw material—usually wood or stone—until the desired form is revealed. Assembling is a process of creating a sculpture which is made up of individual pieces and formed together. In the video Through the Eyes of the Sculptor, Emmanuel Fillion uses modeling, casting, and carving to create his final sculpture, Genesis. 

The video Glass and Ceramics features the ways that glass and ceramics are made, along with their various uses. The text Living With Art also focuses on glass and ceramics, showing the ways that different cultures have utilized the two materials. Ceramics have been created by almost every culture that we know of today, and the earliest known ceramics are from China, dating back to around 20,000 years ago. Most ceramics are meant to be vessels because of the need for them to be hollow (so that they do not blow up when being fired in the kiln), and some of the most beautiful examples have been created by María Martínez, the Pueblo ceramicist who is famous for her blackware techniques; using a process of creating red clay pots, burnishing the pots to a sheen, painting designs on the side with slip, firing the pot and then smothering the bonfire in the middle of the firing process, Martínez was able to create shiny black pots with matte-black designs painted on the sides. 

Glass has been used in sculpture since antiquity, as shown by the pomegranate-shaped bottle from Egypt, dating back to around 1,500 B.C.E. The Egyptian pomegranate bottle was made using the sand-core casting process, where a clay core would be formed into the shape of the hollow space of the desired vessel, the clay core would be dipped in molten glass, and then it would be removed from the molten glass for the final smoothing and decorative painting work. Today, as the video shows, our techniques for shaping glass are much more advanced, but the text and the video both point out that the basic ingredient—silica sand—has not changed since antiquity. 

I appreciated Through the Eyes of the Sculptor more than the Glass and Ceramics video because I thought that it was more interesting to follow the entire process of a master sculptor than it was to hear a bunch of quick facts about glass and ceramics. I enjoyed Through the Eyes of the Sculptor more, but that does not mean that the Glass and Ceramics video did not teach me anything; in fact, I think I learned more facts from the Glass and Ceramics video than I did from Through the Eyes of the Sculptor. I also felt that the Glass and Ceramics video could use a major aesthetic redesign because the animations were strange to me and the host was very robotic.  

As far as adding depth to sculpture, installation, and craft, I felt that both videos were successful. The Through the Eyes of the Sculptor video taught me what the process of a sculptor is; how the actual installation of the final work acts like an installation in the modern sense (since the people who view the sculpture must move around the piece to fully interact with it, thus becoming a part of the space that the sculpture inhabits); and how craft is still very much alive, as shown by the specialized skills of the artigianos who collaborated on Fillion's sculpture. Glass and Ceramics taught me that the purest ingredients and a higher temperature separates the sculpture of fine China from common bricks; that in an art installation, pure light is most important, so having glass that is free of ferrous ions—like the glass roof of the Louvre—is crucial; and with the advent of machine-made products like plates and tiles, true quality and artistry can only come through craftsmanship—making ceramics by hand. In fact, in today’s industrialized society, it is often the imperfections of handmade ceramics which make the works so charming and desirable. 

Until next time! 

References 

  

Getlein, M. (2016). Living with art (Eleventh edition). New York, NY: 

McGraw-Hill Education.  

Films Media Group. (2005). Through the eyes of the sculptor [Video file]. Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=-1&xtid=36103 

  

  

Films Media Group. (1993). Glass and ceramics [Video file]. Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=-1&xtid=5589