June 18 - July 3, 2012, recent Academy graduate
Joseph Brickey (MFA 2012) lived and worked in Carrara, Italy as part of a
two-week Artist in Residence Program sponsored by ABC Stone and The Oriano Galloni Foundation, and coordinated
by artist Stephen Shaheen (MFA 2005).
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The Apuan Alps, where white marble has been
quarried for thousands of years
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By Joseph Brickey (MFA 2012)
Upon
arriving in Pisa, Steve Shaheen was there to greet me and drive me to Carrara.
From the highway I could see the Apuan Alps, with large passages of white where
the mountains had been stripped bare from thousands of years of marble
quarrying.
Looming
above the Italian landscape with a kind of scarred majesty, the sight seemed to
strike a chord deep within me. The
swathes of white marble appeared in the distance as patches of snow, reminding
me of the mountains in my home state of Utah.
But there was something further, faint yet familiar, that I felt tugging
at my roots. These white scars on the
mountain face seemed to whisper me a welcome, the ageless echo of a common
cause, an ancient vestige of a shared passion. I’d come to the heartland of a people who for
countless generations had shared my deep and unique love for this material
called white marble. In a peculiar way, I felt I’d come home.
After
ditching my luggage at Villa Acero, we went straight to Studio Corsanini, where
I'd spend the next two weeks carving my piece in marble. The workshop owned by
Luigi Corsanini is well known in the marble carving world of Tuscany, Luigi
himself being recognized for his knowledge of the classical tradition, as well
as the quality of his workmanship.
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| Three generations of Corsanini stone carvers |
In this
modern age of power tools and technology, very few learn the old ways of
working with marble. But the craft lives on in the Corsanini family, a way of
life and a family tradition. It's a
beautiful thing to see: a rare and difficult skill that just seems to be in the
blood, unifying generations and preserving the mastery of an ancient method.
Such a flame is easily quenched, and in the world at large it nearly has been,
but it yet burns brightly in this little pocket of Tuscany, undisturbed by the
changes all about.
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| Young Niccolo Corsanini at work |
Among the
dozens of marble workshops in the area, Studio Corsanini is unique in many
ways, one being the way international artists work together with homegrown
artisans. Blood, sweat, and tears are
not just metaphorical terms here, but the real ingredients of comradery. Add marble dust to the mix, and you have a
motley group of rare individuals becoming tangibly bound together, from being
one percenters in the world to being 100 percenters in the workshop. How fortunate that I'd landed here of all
places!
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| Kuetani and Steve working at Studio Corsanini |
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| Sculptor Itto Kuetani finishing his latest marble |
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| Master craftsman Massimo at work |
After
selecting the stone of my choice, it was cut down to size. This block of marble would become the island
of my new adventure, the prison of my new labor, the field of my new battle. Everything outside of it only existed to
serve my life within it. On it I would
stake my claim in a tradition that makes the laborer noble, dirty work
honorable, every move immortal, and—come to think of it—every failure famous!
I felt I had entered a marathon on a tightrope.
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| measuring
the model |
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| establishing cardinal points |
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| Massimo blurring the divide between speed &
precision |
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| marking the marble block |
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| marking the mastic on the model |
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|
finding point on the marble |
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| Massimo measuring depth |
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| the first cuts into the block |
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| The marble block after the first stages |
Check back here for more of Joseph's reflections on his residency and first experience working with stone.
Did you miss Joseph's other posts on his experience in Carrara? Read Carrara: The Impossible Dream and Carrara Part III: Reduced to the Dust by Marble.
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