Theater of Stone

About

In the theater of stone, all – quarry, rock, stone, you, me, artists, all of us as a whole – are a site and an experience. We all act, enact, and live relationally. Rock is not merely material or mineral; you are not just a maker exerting control over the rock. Rock and humans are all loci for slow and fast, discernible or evanescent processes, and way stations for exchanges, associations, and learnings. Let our work reflect on the stone as both an actor with its own geological and cultural experiences and a stage on which we (and others) enact, project, and enrich ourselves. Let us approach ourselves as an actor and a stage for stone to enact, project, and enrich stony time. Think of stone as an ancestor and a future agent. This class acknowledges our kinship and our evident otherness from stone. Our personal and planetary fates are tied.
Together, we will converse with the unique setting of the quarry and the ancient material of Untersberger marble. In our discussions and encounters with stone, our respective material strengths and vulnerabilities will inform our understanding of our interconnectedness and our relationships to stone. You will have a chance to discuss and develop your ideas individually and in a supportive cohort throughout the three-week session. Each of us will generate ideas at the quarry to make work with and about stone. We will learn by researching and mapping the senses of stone – for instance, by knocking stones together, reading poetry to the stones, echoing our dancing steps in the quarry – and by sharing with each other sounds, textures, and embodied live gestures that link our body’s fate with that of the earth. Choksi and Hölzl will support your conceptual and technical questions around stone sculpture. In addition, you are welcome to use photo, video, audio, frottage, and live or private performances in conjunction with the material of stone to develop your art.

Course leader

Neha Choksi

Target group

Sculpture

Installation

Performance

Fee info