Abstract Sculpture

This is a paper I wrote for 3D Design. The pictures shown are Steve Tobin's "African Termite Hills" and Gillian Jagger's "In the Absence of Faith".

On Kuspit's "Abstraction & Empathy, Once Again"
The problem with abstract sculpture reviewed in Donald Kuspit's article "Abstraction & Empathy, Once Again", is how we deal with and respond to the space we are, as well as the space that we all exist in. However, more specifically Kuspit explores the contradiction of the abstract form to the natural model. The author suggests that the solution is to either find a way in which both the abstract and natural can coincide without one taking anything away from the other, or by creating completely abstract pieces "purely geometrical in form".
In the first example Kuspit gives of the unity between organic and geometric, he mentions Gillian Jagger, Steve Tobin, and Paul Waldman. Each of these artists have pieces that, according to Kuspit, at first glance are obviously organic. However, upon further investigation it is plain to see that they all incorporate the geometrical. Jagger's 'In the Absence of Faith' is supported by and contained in a geometrical framework. Tobin's 'African Termite Hills' reside amongst lifeless architecture so that the contrast intensifies the organic elegance of the hills. Finally, Waldman's figures surrounded by infinite space are all placed on the "geometrical stage" so that they seemingly become more "finite" than they really are. Finally, Kuspit describes the work of Carol Ross and Iian Averbuch using the reverse formula. Kuspit says that Ross' "Wedge" and "Monarch" are unmistakably abstract. But like the pieces described earlier, they cover both sides of the spectrum in that the
y portray "vitality" as the author puts it. Similarly, Averbuch's work, "A Dream of Two Snakes", embodies both organic and abstract. By the use of glass panes and roughly carved stone blocks, Averbuch interweaves the fragile and the robust. Kuspit makes this point by stating that "the abstract shapes of the DNA strands and the organic bodies of the two snakes are virtually indistinguishable".
Kuspit maintains that by being 'organic' a piece is continuously growing or being deconstructed in the sense that it can simply be unfinished forever. Kuspit also uses life and vitality to describe the organic qualities of the pieces he examines. He conversely describes the inorganic form to be lifeless and unchanging, referring to it most often as the geometrical form. By using 'immense buildings' as an example, Kuspit makes the remark that they "seem dead" because "their form has been finalized". Through the author's exploration of these example pieces it becomes obvious that they all embody both organic and inorganic, whether or not it is intentional. Ultimately, organic and abstract geometry can never be separated entirely because they are fundamentally one and the same.