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About The Marble Cadillac project
The recording will be pretty, pretty bad because of the sound of
the car. You better shout. It's running.
When the Cadillac is complete, where would you like to have it
shown. Whose collection would you like to see it in?
I'm not aware enough of collections. I don't know any single name
of collectors beside the names of the people who bought my pieces.
The best place to show the Cadillac is the place where I want to show
it in front of O.K. Harris. It could be a Landmark on West Broadway,
but they will have to move that bloody fire pump.
How do you feel about the marble Cadillac going to a private
collection? Would you prefer to see it in a public setting a
museum?
I prefer, certainly, a public situation. if it is a museum, I
prefer outdoors. I see it ,best on the street.
Why a Cadillac as opposed to another car?
The first pieces I did were appliances from my childhood, from my
appartment my mother's sewing machine, our radio, the toaster. I want
to do our ref rigerator. When I was a kid, my parents had no car but
.I remember being picked up at school by a close friend's car with a
chauffeur. I remember they had a regular Plymouth for every day and f
rom time to time, when the chauffeur was coming directly f rom the
office of my friend's father, he came with a Cadillac. That was very
special to us. We were maybe seven or eight years old and at that age
the senses are very developed. The Cadillac did really smell
different. The little knob to set the window up and down was
transparent plastic and the steering wheel was very glamerous. The
car was kept in very good shape and was the object of care of the
chauffeur and the admiration of the people on the street. It was a
treat to ride in it.
So you actually remember touching and seeing the details? It
wasn't just the idea of a "Cadillac" and what it means, what it
symbolizes?
I liked the car bef ore I knew what Cadillac means. I remember the
quality of the car and the shortest cut to describe the quality of
the car is to give it it's name and it was a "Cadillac". It was not a
50s car, it was a 47 or 48 Cadillac so what I am doing now is not
exactly the car I used to ride in, but I think it is more
representative of cars in general and American car production in
particular. The car I chose is more a symbol and a car I admired f
rom outside, looking at it on the streets and in gas stations.
Do you think the Cadillac has a wide audience? Do you think
your sculpture will trigger such memories in many people or is it
more a private vision?
I do love to be loved, to have feedback from the people who regard
my work but I think of myself first. There is no speculation on being
loved more by using a car that everybody loves, i t is first of aIl a
car that I design as being a symbol and a car that pleases me. One
often thinks that the artist has a message to deliver. That's bull
shit. I believe that the artist shows with his work what everybody
has uncon-ciously felt. When I do a Caddy that means Hey.' See? Me
too:
Why marble? Did you ever make paintings of these childhood
images - the appliances in your home, the car you rode home from
school in?
Marble is a unique material not because of it's tradition and what
people see in it as a symbol of durability but because you have te
carve every piece separately and you can't make an edition, like in
bronze for example. I like the no-return aspect. marble does not
offer a chance te redeame yourself . You make a mistake, it's too
late. Yeo better buy another block and start again. In other
materials, you can add or subtract mater. In marble, and in wood
also, you cannot add you can only subtract. But I de prefer marble te
wood because while wood pulls you, marble pushes you - I mean your
chisel. I do paint objects in marble. They are watercolors. Here
exactly the opposite happens. You can not subtract, you can only add.
You know that in painting with acrylic or oil you can add density or
subtract it by adding white. That means coming back on an addition of
color. It's like subtracting color. In watercolor you can't. If the
paper is too dark, it's too late.
No repentance.
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So, in f act, it has the same quality.
It's the same kind of quality. No way of return. It is somehow
like life itself . The way of no return. You can't really erase part
of your life. It's done. It's done.
So, this is a risky business. We are talking about a 45 ton
block of marble for the Cadillac. Is there much chance for
mistake?
The state of artist is dangerous in general. When you are
talking about business, it is really risky. That is the reason
parents are completely f reaked out when they hear that their child
is going in that direction. Artists are used to risks, we take them
all the time. I'll be care-full. I'll set my belt on - my safety
belt.
Is that art?
Artists have hardly an idea about what is art and what is not.
It's the public and the art critic who define that. Artists confess only themselves to be artists and whatever they do is art. Whatever they
sign is art. We are now after Duchamps who signed a bottle rack. We
know that Andy Warhol did his silk-screens by phone. He called the
printer to say "put some red on the mouth, green on the eyes and
print". It 's still an Andy Warhol and no one discusses that. I love
it.
Can you imagine doing a series of sculptures of cars or is the
Cadillac the ultimate car sculpture?
Artists make pieces that are good and others that are less good. I
hope to do always better than the last. Now I have to do this one -
the Cadillac - and this leads to the next piece. I am not thinking
yet about another car. I would rather think about a Grey-hound Bus or
a DC 3 or something like that. You never know what could happen. As a
matter of fact, I saw a Volvo the other day. I thought it was a great
car but you know.....this is still in the air.
Is there a great deal of resistance to your pro-ducing this
piece?
The marble it self offers resistance to carving it is not a easy
medium. There is no resistance at all to my carving a Cadillac. It's
only the lack of money. if I had the money, I would have done it
without hesitation - without a second thought.
A Greyhound Bus, a DC 3. The Cadillac is a huge
project by itself . Is it the scale - the menumentality - that
interests you?
It's true that the dimension adds te the ex-citement of the
project. Mount Rushmore and the Great Pyramids are interesting
because they are big. Imagine a model of Mount Rushmore. Would you be
interested to look at it? Size is part of the excitement. There is
more dynamic in it. marble works with its density.
Does your use of marble in sculpture have some-thing te do with
permanence as well? A marble sculpture will not decay the way a
wooden one, or a painted canvas, will or the way the Cadillac itself
, in metal, will decay.
Everything decays if it doesn't get attention. Everyone does.
Marble is not so solid, not so un-breakable as peeple think. If we
still have some mar-ble sculpture f rom antiquity, it's not because
they are marble. It is because people cared about them. I haven't
speculated on the solidity of the marble in order te survive.
Can you imagine the Cadillac surviving 500 years f rom now - a
damaged antiquity with a broken headlamp, a missing bumper or
doorhandle?
Yeah, I think about it. It's very exciting. May-be some idiot will
try to fix it - restore it. It will end in a French museum. It may
end up with a French hubcap. It's fun te speculate. You know about
the Sphinx in the Louvre which has been restored with a French
baker's nose. No one notices it except someone who is very alert and
can tell the difference be-tween a French and an Egyptian nose.
De you think of your sculpture surviving you?
I'm tempted to say I don't care but it would be a lie. I think
that all artists believe they have a little victory on death through
their work. I hate to say that after thousands of dead artists who
have said it before me.
In other words, I could answer yes or no with the same conviction.
Noreen Lewandowski and Roland Baladi
New York 1985 |
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