Zoë Suenson-Taylor was one of two Academy students to try
her steady hands at stone carving last summer. Part of the Carrara, Italy
residency, Zoe created a sculpture that will make its American debut tonight at ABC Stone's
Brooklyn headquarters. Hours before the unveiling we caught up with Zoe
to get an insider's view of the residency and experience in Italy. This
is part one of the two part post.
NEGOTIATING HISTORY in CARRARA by Zoë Suenson-Taylor (MFA 2013)
Every morning we were expected to be at the Corsanini Studio and stone yard by 8:30-9:00am, so we were up for breakfast by 8:00am. After changing into work boots and a respirator, ear defenders and shaded safety glasses, we got to carving. The set up was perfect. The stone yard is outdoors and is open on all sides so there’s always a breeze. There is a spectacular view up to the quarries and a grand sense of space. There were cranes and forklifts and lots of strong muscles that made the stone seem weightless. After working for a few hours, all the artisans from the studio ate lunch together upstairs. Lunch was always a gorgeously, simple Italian meal of pasta and sauce, a salad picked from Massimo’s garden, sometimes cheese and meats or a home cooked meat dish, a small glass of red wine, occasionally chocolate and a shot of grappa to conclude the meal. I always left the table with a spring in my step. We then carved until last light, about 7:00-8:00pm. Marina de Carrara is very close to the coast so we’d refresh in the sea with the very last rays of sun and then sample a pizza place with their own special secret family recipes for dinner until going to bed from sheer exhaustion. This was my routine, six days out of the every week, for the two and a half weeks I was there. Needless to say, it was the most demanding art experience I’ve had.
Many people have said how hard they believe
stone carving to be. I have always revered
it and treated it with such respect that I was almost afraid to try. I needed
to get better at everything else before I could manipulate a precious piece of
marble. In Carrara there is so much marble they pave the streets with it.
Marble as big as a suitcase can be thrown in the dumpster as an offcut. The
very first day, we sourced and heaved a piece out to become our
first fledgling attempt at carving. We bumped and stuttered and fumbled through
the first steps. I was in a state of constant
perplexity. How do you keep your eye protectors from fogging up while wearing a
dust mask? I was always readjusting my mask placing it higher or lower on my
face. I ate a lot of marble dust and got a lot in my eyes. But then
with the right tools held in the right way, it became almost effortless, like a
hot knife through butter. This was immensely satisfying. On that
random offcut we were free, not afraid of
making an error and making things up as we went along.
Working on the primary piece for our
time here was different; it was much harder!
The greatest challenge
was measuring. Using the huge angle grinder while shifting so much heavy material. It
took a while to wrap my head around trigonometry again. I had to
translate the bozetti (Italian for maquette) to the
marble block and match up the four cardinal points. At
that stage, there was so much to learn and we were also holding the carving
tools for the first time. We came to learn that the angle of the point you are
trying to reach needs to have two known points at a 90-degree angle on the same
plane as the point, and the cala, or depth measurement, should be as perpendicular
to the point as possible. That information is vital and it didn’t sink in
easily. I really freaked out when the very first point we went for was
the tip of the nose, the center of the face. One day I took the whole day to
get two points. Another huge challenge was just negotiating the position of the
head. The head is slightly inclined to the right, and turned to the right and
tilted upwards. Your eyes always want to correct this and level the face. I
wish I could have tipped the 300lb block right up to the bozzetti face but I’m
not that strong. After
removing what felt like mountains I was only
half way. 
Having the head on the angle and the right arm raised meant
it was also extremely hard to get access to the neck and clavicular region. I didn’t
start with a very good bozzetti. I actually took two maquettes
to Italy, as I thought they both had accents of the idea I was trying to
reach; An idea of a sneeze and what controls it. I enjoy the ambiguity of the
lost yet hopeful moment one has to resign all control in an anticipation of the
impending relief. We began putting mastic points on one bozzetti
and I’d say, “Oh, that needs to come out”, “There’s actually going to be a bit
more there”, “Yeah, I don’t want it to quite be like that." I saw all of the imperfections amplified as I went.
I thought after ten days on the residency my carving was
really looking like my model. Two days later I stopped measuring points and steadily unified masses blocking out the larger
forms and constantly drew on the piece. By the end of our time in Carrara my
fat head with a sock on it was almost
finished. An educated estimate proposed it might take another three to five
weeks to complete. I'm sorry not to have completed it in Carrara. Before coming home, I was already dreaming of when it would be shipped back to the States so I
could finish it.
For the last four days, Heather and I decided to visit
Florence and Rome, a hard decision because
we wanted to keep carving. But not visiting
would have been sacrilege. After our experience, we had a new and amplified respect for all things carved in
stone. Literally EVERYTHING becomes incredible at the Borghese; my master of sculpture, Bernini had us in
awe. Somehow we were not asked to leave and stayed sketching throughout
the staggered entry times. They must have seen how inspired we were.
With my next stone carving I will start from a fully
realized piece. Something that is ordered in it’s dimensions, thorough in its
proportional relationships, designed to the smallest degree the formal
relationships and completely evoking a
soulful style complimentary to the idea. I now see how
important it is to be committed to the
formal construction, so accurate points can
be taken as it is scaled up. The sculpture will naturally evolve with the
amplification of size so there is more space, more area of possibility and more
decisions. Once the key structural positions have been reached in the carving,
I think it is important to work freehand. By having a fully investigated
guide in the form of the fully realized bozzetti, I
will save so much time!
Stay tuned for the second part of Zoe's reflection on her
experience in Carrara.
To learn more about the Carrara residency please visit the Residency page on the Academy's website
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