Softspoken by nature, Chris Plaisted builds sculptures that are anything but quiet. Complex arrangements of steel, copper, wood, and concrete commune together to form sculptures, large and small, that emit a brooding but gentle grace. Originally from New Hampshire, Plaisted graduated from Parson’s New School for Design in New York City, and has maintained a longstanding career as a graphic design artist. However, six years ago he reignited a childhood love for woodwork and metalsmithing that now drives his creative practice.

“My work tends to focus on forms of conflict,” he says. “It may be in the concept—man vs. nature, social vs. emotion—or it may be the tension created by the use of contrasting materials.” Focusing primarily on what he sees as “permanent materials” such as wood, steel, copper, concrete, and other precious metals, Plaisted intensifies his materials by placing them in opposition, highlighting their strengths and vulnerabilities.

With an air of mystery, Plaisted’s sculptures look like stories waiting to unfold. His sculpture Harbinger, impressive in both size and skill, is inspired by religious artifacts at The Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of European medieval art and architecture. “As you walk around it, you will see a cross, a 4 for the [four] horseman of the apocalypse and a 7 for the seven plagues,” he says. Smaller sculptures, such as Rapture, display a secret intimate story between the materials of steel, copper, and wood coming together in an delicate and enduring embrace.

Anabassis, height: 15ft. On display at the Sculpture Now, an exhibition of large outdoor sculpture at The Mount, Lenox, MA., image courtesy of Catherine Plaisted

Tucked away in a quiet neighborhood between Candlewood Lake and the Housatonic River in Connecticut, Plaisted draws inspiration from the nature around him, staying busy across many creative forms that include sculpture, graphic design, and painting. Plaisted hails from a creative family; his father is an acclaimed pastiche artist and his grandmother is an award-winning tinsel folk artist, and both laid the groundwork for his creative childhood. At an early age, he was introduced to metal and woodwork by a neighbor who was a welder.

Scrolls, steel, image courtesy of Chris Plaisted

Plaisted’s work currently resides at The Mount, the Berkshire historic estate of famed novelist Edith Wharton, as well as the Pierce Ball Gallery in Stamford, Connecticut. “As I continue to hopefully create visually appealing art, I don’t want to be constrained by style or medium,” Plaisted says. “Quite the opposite; they should flow to the next piece no matter the form or expression.”

Chris Plaisted–sculptor
New Milford, Connecticut
Website
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Top image, Harbinger, steel, width: 10’, height: 12’, depth: 10’. Image courtesy of Catherine Plaisted.

The post Forms in Conflict appeared first on Take Magazine.

From the soft hues of LED lights to the carefully placed assemblages of everyday objects, Shelby Head tells stories through sculpture. Her latest exhibition, Beyond Indifference, shown recently at Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery in Stamford, Connecticut, “is a collection of mixed media works assembled from decorative and domestic objects commonly associated with the ‘feminine’.” Born out of post-election anxiety, Head uses feminine materials to tackle notions of misogyny and the roles of gender, by using the iconography of a Power Figure as inspiration to evoke healing, protection, and even punishment against the psychic and social harm of a patriarchal society.

Born in Bronxville, New York in the late ’50s, Head has dedicated her life to sculpture, a field that she says did not always make a lot of space for women. “As a young woman, I was told in school that I couldn’t take shop class, that I had to take Home Ec,” she says. “And it was an incredible disservice to me. I do not cook, and honestly, I don’t have much interest in domestic things.” She went on to receive her M.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and her M.A. in sculpture at Adams State University in Colorado. “When I went to college, I noticed that my lack of ability to study technical skills in grade school meant that I was greatly behind my male classmates in school.” she says.

Shelby Head installing Homage to WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union)

Post college, Head was hungry to learn intensive technical skills and began to work in art foundries in the desert landscape of Santa Fe, becoming a mold maker and wax technician. Later, she began working with sculptor Tom Otterness in New York City, building models for stop motion animation. “I am deeply moved by how materials work, what they feel like, how they can come together,” she says. “I worked as a technician so that I could not only make things that are aesthetically beautiful, but were also functionally sound and well made.” Even today, as she works through a process of trial and error to create new works, Head pulls out her hot glue gun and starts “putting things together to see what makes sense.”

Head’s work carries depth and secrets. A previous body of work, In Measured Line (2015), is a culmination of her precision as an artist, uniting the totality of her skill to create numerous beautifully constructed light boxes that layer wood, paper, and LED lights. The work focuses on exploring the new frontier of her aging body. “I know how to be young, and now I am growing old,” she says. “I don’t know how to be old yet, and to me it is fascinating. I am learning how I work.”

Exhibition View, Dialogue, Box 1: 9’x 8”, Box 2: 6’x 12”, Box 3: 4’x 10”, Box 4: 5’x 22”, Box 5: 7’x 9’, wood, paper, LED lights, 2015, Atonement, 6’x 6’ x 5.5”, wood, paper, copper flashing, LED lights, 2015

Throughout her individual sculptures in In Measured Line, Head covers mistakes and imperfections within the work by layering paper and light. The Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery notes that in the show “[s]he explores the ways in which we account for-either embrace or destroy-our imperfections and mimics how we navigate our complexities selectively revealing our inner workings to others”.

Like all of her work, In Measured Line demonstrates her meticulous and minimalist approach to sculpture that pulses with vulnerability and poignant narrative. She notes that she likes a minimalist approach because it ensures “that all elements of my sculptures have to be true. They can’t be hidden behind a lot of movement”. Unexpected objects such as garden hoses, hair, herbs, stockings, human nails, and an impressive collection of LED lights form the heart of her work. Such objects and materials speak in unexpected equations and powerful ideological nuances that unfold a world of human experience.

Shelby Head–artist
Madison, Connecticut
Website

Top image: Power Figure, 42″x 76″x 50″, iron, cord, plug, ironing board, mannequin, paper, cheese cloth, safety pin, knitting needles, reflective frame, tights, stockings, finger nails, hair, herbs, towel, 2017, photo by Jadu Durrans

The post Paper and Light appeared first on Take Magazine.

From the soft hues of LED lights to the carefully placed assemblages of everyday objects, Shelby Head tells stories through sculpture. Her latest exhibition, Beyond Indifference, shown recently at Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery in Stamford, Connecticut, “is a collection of mixed-media works assembled from decorative and domestic objects commonly associated with the ‘feminine’.” Born out of post-election anxiety, Head’s work makes use of feminine materials to tackle notions of misogyny and the roles of gender, by using the iconography of a Power Figure as inspiration to evoke healing, protection, and even punishment against the psychic and social harm of a patriarchal society.

Born in Bronxville, New York in the late ’50s, Head has dedicated her life to sculpture, a field that she says did not always make a lot of space for women. “As a young woman, I was told in school that I couldn’t take shop class, that I had to take Home Ec,” she says. “And it was an incredible disservice to me. I do not cook, and honestly, I don’t have much interest in domestic things.” She went on to receive her M.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and her M.A. in sculpture at Adams State University in Colorado. “When I went to college, I noticed that my lack of ability to study technical skills in grade school meant that I was greatly behind my male classmates in school,” she says.

Shelby Head installing Homage to WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union)

Post college, Head was hungry to learn intensive technical skills. She began to work in art foundries in the desert landscape of Santa Fe, becoming a mold maker and wax technician. Later, she assisted sculptor Tom Otterness in New York City, building models for stop motion animation. “I am deeply moved by how materials work, what they feel like, how they can come together,” she says. “I worked as a technician so that I could not only make things that are aesthetically beautiful, but were functionally sound and well made.” Even today, as she works through a process of trial and error to create new works, Head pulls out her hot glue gun and starts “putting things together to see what makes sense.”

Head’s work carries depth and secrets. A previous body of work, In Measured Line (2015), is a culmination of her precision as an artist, uniting the totality of her skill to create numerous beautifully constructed light boxes that layer wood, paper, and LED lights. The work focuses on exploring the new frontier of her aging body. “I know how to be young, and now I am growing old,” she says. “I don’t know how to be old yet, and to me it is fascinating. I am learning how I work.”

Exhibition View, Dialogue, Box 1: 9’x 8”, Box 2: 6’x 12”, Box 3: 4’x 10”, Box 4: 5’x 22”, Box 5: 7’x 9’, wood, paper, LED lights, 2015, Atonement, 6’x 6’ x 5.5”, wood, paper, copper flashing, LED lights, 2015

Throughout her individual sculptures in In Measured Line, Head covers mistakes and imperfections within the work by layering paper and light. The Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery notes that in the show “[s]he explores the ways in which we account for–either embrace or destroy–our imperfections, and mimics how we navigate our complexities, selectively revealing our inner workings to others.”

Like all of her work, In Measured Line demonstrates her meticulous and minimalist approach to sculpture that pulses with vulnerability and poignant narrative. She notes that she likes a minimalist approach because it ensures “that all elements of my sculptures have to be true. They can’t be hidden behind a lot of movement.” Unexpected objects such as garden hoses, hair, herbs, stockings, human nails, and an impressive collection of LED lights form the heart of her work. Such objects and materials speak in unexpected equations and powerful ideological nuances that unfold a world of human experience.

Shelby Head–artist
Madison, Connecticut
Website

Top image: Power Figure, 42″x 76″x 50″, iron, cord, plug, ironing board, mannequin, paper, cheese cloth, safety pin, knitting needles, reflective frame, tights, stockings, finger nails, hair, herbs, towel, 2017, photo by Jadu Durrans

The post Paper and Light appeared first on Take Magazine.