February 27, 2025 • 16 mins
Join us for an exploration of art and materials in this interview Nathan Terborg, recorded at his solo exhibition at Galerie Benjamin Eck in Munich. Nathan skillfully transforms found objects into thought-provoking art pieces. Discover how his early experiences in his grandfather's woodshop influenced his artistic journey, leading him away from traditional painting towards an immersive sculptural practice. Nathan dives into the essence of experimentation, stressing how the relationship between artist and materials is foundational to creating meaningful work.
Nathan’s approach of curiosity and discovery emphasizes that artistic freedom resides in the acceptance of imperfection and the willingness to explore beyond the surface. The conversation also highlights the importance of communication through art, with Nathan referencing the impactful words of Louise Bourgeois. This insight showcases the intrinsic value of art as an unspoken language that connects both the creator and observer.
By drawing from personal anecdotes and professional insights, Nathan inspires listeners to reconsider their interactions with materials and art forms. As he encourages audiences to engage with sculptures tactually, he elucidates the transformative potential hidden within the discarded. Dive into this rich dialogue on creativity and allow yourself to be inspired by the alchemy of art!
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Galerie Benjamin Eck: www.benjamin-eck.com
Chris Fay Media: www.chrisfay.de
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Just Make Art
.
In today's episode we're goingto be sharing an interview that
was recorded in Munich rightafter the day after the opening
of my solo exhibition at GalleryBenjamin Eck.
This is an interview we hadn'treally planned on, but it was
kind of a follow-up to theconversation that I'd had with
Domenico Chirico.
That was recorded at theopening itself.
(00:33):
So that was shared in ourprevious episodes.
So go ahead and check that outif you are so inclined.
This was something that was alittle bit spur of the moment,
but Chris Fay, who's aphenomenal videographer and
filmmaker, good friend ofBenjamin's, had suggested that
we do another interview and sohe came in and set up a
phenomenal setup.
You'll see the lighting andeverything is just on point.
So if you're listening to thisand you want to go, check out
(00:56):
the YouTube version, it's therefor your viewing enjoyment.
But yeah, this is much more ofa casual chat.
This was after Benjamin and Ihad spent about a week together
hanging out and quite a bit oftime doing everything from going
to the airport to pick up themassive crate full of work to
installing the show, to justkind of connecting and chatting.
So this is a much more casualconversation than the more
(01:16):
formal one that we had had thenight before, which again was
shared in our previous episode.
If you want to go, check thatout.
But in this episode I did a verypoor job of sharing a Louise
Bourgeois quote, and so I wantto do that quote justice before
we get into the interview,because it is that good and
deserves to be shared properly.
So Louise said a work of artdoesn't have to be explained.
(01:38):
If you do not have any feelingabout this, I cannot explain it
to you.
If this doesn't touch you, Ihave failed, and this is
especially meaningful to mebecause it's funny how things
work out from a timingperspective.
Just this past weekend, I got achance to visit the Art
Institute of Chicago with my mom.
We were traveling for a familyreunion that was not too far
(01:59):
from Chicago and decided toschedule in an extra day to have
a little mother-son art timetogether, which is super cool,
but was not expecting to walkinto a room full of Louise's
work.
They've got currently sixsculptures of hers that were
made at very different periodsduring her almost 75-year career
of making work, and so it wasreally, really just awesome.
(02:23):
I mean absolute blast to goahead and look at that work with
my mom, who didn't have anycontext, obviously, for her work
or what it was about, and sothis quote was especially
interesting to view all thosepieces for me in person for the
first time, for sure, and for mymom to be seeing her work for
the first time ever, and itdefinitely inspired a really fun
(02:45):
conversation afterwards wherewe got to talk more about, you
know, what inspired her, herlife and those types of things,
which was just really cool.
But because I did such a bad jobof and you'll hear it when I
paraphrase this quote in theinterview itself, I wanted to
make sure and share that in itsproper and full form.
So, apart from that, we alsodiscuss how I got from painting
(03:07):
to what I'm doing now, how someof my childhood memories impact
what I'm doing today, myrelationship with materials in
terms of how I acquire them, howI find them, how I catalog them
and how I process material and,lastly, what I hope people take
from my work.
So with that, here's theinterview.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Hi, today we are with Nathan Turberg.
Four questions for him.
He's the alchemist in thegallery program, observing
materials, giving it a newcontext, a new soul.
So, nathan, have you everthought about switching to
painting, would you?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
like me to.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I don't think so With respect to Ratul.
Here we go again.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
You know it's interesting.
So I started painting.
That was the first thing that Idid and I enjoyed it.
I started painting, that wasthe first thing that I did and I
enjoyed it.
I found very quickly that whatI wanted to do visually could
not be accomplished in twodimensions, so I don't remember
exactly when it was, but I wasworking on a piece and I started
(04:07):
to sand a little bit, which youcan do a little bit on canvas.
But then I started to reallywork it and it wasn't long, of
course, before I punct bit, youknow, on canvas.
But then I started to reallywork it and it wasn't long, of
course, before I punctured, youknow, the canvas, and that was
that.
So from there I moved on towood panels, which just kind of
gave me more space, of course,to kind of sand and carve.
You know a little bit.
And then I remembered, you know,back to childhood.
(04:28):
My grandfather had a wood shopand I remember some of my
earliest memories are justwalking into his wood shop and
just the smell of fresh cut wood, seeing him, you know, all of
his tools lined up, just so, andit was just a magical place
where he was, just, he wasretired and just making
(04:48):
furniture, toys, you know,christmas gifts, that kind of
thing.
And so I started very young Igot a carving knife and would do
whittling and I would carve youknow little animals.
And so when I started workingwith wood, I started thinking
about you know what are someways that I can carve and just
manipulate and just get moredimension and more depth.
And so then I started workingwith wood that got more and more
(05:10):
thick two, three centimetersand that's kind of the first
series of work that I did wasalmost exclusively wood that was
carved and burned and that thenled me to everything that's
here adding different materials,building up layers, which is
what this show is about.
So I don't have any plans ongoing back to painting anytime
(05:31):
soon, but you never know.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I see.
So how do you?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
find your materials.
My antenna is always, always,always.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I mean even just walking around the city here.
I've seen some things that lookfamiliar.
There's some material that iseverywhere in the world, right
Like plastic is everywhere, tarpis everywhere, you know, wood
is, of course, but there's never, I've never, met a material
that I didn't at least want totry to experiment.
Right like plastic iseverywhere.
Tarp is everywhere, you know,wood is, of course, um, but
there's never, I've never met amaterial that I didn't at least
want to try to experiment with,you know.
So experimentation really isthe core of my studio practice,
(06:03):
it's the core of my work.
It's a curiosity to really getmy hands into things.
It's about the process.
Yes, I think of it asdissection, you know almost a
scientific, like what is this?
How can I get this down to itssort of essence and cut it down,
burn it down, how can I get itdown to its core and then from
(06:24):
there developing a relationshipwith the material?
That's kind of how I thinkabout.
It is like how can I sort oftame this wild beast that I
don't understand?
Initially, and after enoughrepetition and time and sort of
studying what can be done, I usea lot of heat, mostly melting,
some burning, but justdiscovering like some of these
(06:47):
materials for example, they'revery delicate there's a very,
very fine line between a nicelittle melt, where it can be
manipulated, and full flames andthen it's done.
But the beautiful thing aboutworking with discarded material
or trash is that for me, itprovides a tremendous amount of
freedom, Possibilities.
(07:07):
Possibilities yeah yeah, yeah,choice, choice, options.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, freedom.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
There's no limit to, I think, what can be done, and
there's also, I think, nopressure for me, because the
worst thing that can happen, theworst case, is that it becomes
trash Again, again, right, whichis what it was before you know,
but you give it a differentmeaning.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
The context is the transpiration of that's what
makes it unique.
Yes, a new soul.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I think you know I do .
I spoke with somebody aboutthis at the opening last night.
I have an appreciation for artthat is clearly found objects
where you can identify.
This is what that used to be.
I have a compulsion, a desire,an obsession with what else
(07:59):
could it be?
How can I make this throughprocess and experiment?
How can I make it lookdifferent than what it was
before?
I like for people to besurprised when I tell them what
it used to be.
I don't want for it to beimmediately obvious oh, that
used to be.
Whatever it is.
And so, from a sourcingstandpoint, one of my, one of
the not a rule, but somethingthat I try to stick to is having
(08:22):
sources for materials that arerenewable, or I know I can get
an almost endless supply, neverrun out, Correct, because it
takes a lot of time.
I've worked with some materialswhere I only had a finite
amount, mostly things that Ifound in like construction
dumpsters, mostly things that Ifound in like construction
dumpsters, some of my favoriteplaces to go and discover things
(08:43):
.
When I drive past aconstruction site and I see the
big, the big bins, I'm always,you know, peeking in and seeing.
You know what I can find, and Ifound some really delicious,
just amazing materials that I,by the time I, just by the time
I figured out how to use them.
I go back to my, my supply.
My studio is full of veryobsessive organization of
(09:03):
different materials and I goback to where it was and I
realize I'm out.
So that's kind of my worst notmy worst fear.
But I try to work with materialwhere I know I can always get
more of it.
So, just using this as anexample, the white layer on the
very inside of this is made offeed bags.
Some good friends of ours farmand raise chickens and so I just
(09:26):
hey, I need it, and they'vejust dumped full trash bags, you
know, full of them.
The billboard tarps I get inhuge, huge sections.
They're the big billboardadvertisements and so those are.
We're never going to run out ofthose unless we stop, you know,
advertising for things.
They're usually for attorneys,lawyers.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I don't see that.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
No, it's always a surprise when I unfold a new one
, what's going to be on theinside.
You know, with this one there'sa really interesting sort of
blue that kind of peeks through.
But some of the materials I'msourcing myself right.
So, like the coffee filters,I've got a pretty committed
coffee habit.
So, these are all from my ownpersonal reserve of materials,
(10:12):
but I rarely meet a materialthat I didn't at least want to
try.
Most of it doesn't work.
Most of it just isn't viable.
Ninety-seven% of my experimentsjust fail.
But it leads me to the nextthing, which is exciting for
sure.
(10:34):
Do you have any material that ismost fascinating for you so far
you ever worked with.
My latest obsession is metal.
There's something about theprocess of melting a solid metal
into a liquid form, pouring itinto a mold and then seeing it,
of course, add patinas you know,do different things with that.
I think that I'd like to saythat my favorite material I
(11:07):
probably haven't found yet.
I mean, I have a long, longlist of things that are in the
studio that I'm starting to playwith and experiment with that I
haven't what would be yourfirst choice.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Do you have any preferences?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
There's a material called coroplast and in in the
US we call them yard signs.
It's like, yeah, just plasticlike cardboard, but made of
plastic right.
And so there's a couple ofpieces that we have hanging in
front where the sculpturalelements are made of that
material.
But that's a very fun materialthat will respond very
(11:40):
differently to heat, but I canmelt it and bend it and then
when it cools it's rock, rocksolid, but it's a.
It's a great, great material.
But yeah, it's, for me it'sjust the fascination, the
discovery, the, the dissection,you know, to really pull things
apart, see what's and then seewhat can be done with them.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
So, Nathan, how do you feel about when people
compare you to Burry or AmazonKiefer?
So you're in the country ofKiefer.
How do you feel about that?
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I mean, those are some of my heroes absolutely,
and so I think there's actuallysomething from the talk.
Last night I was thinking inbed like I I wanted to from
Kiefer specifically, that I thatI really appreciate about his
approach to work in interviewsor the documentaries that I've
seen.
There's a story that I that Ilove thinking about and
(12:36):
repeating to people.
I can't recall whichdocumentary it's from, but
there's a.
He tells a story of a show ofhis being installed and as it's
being taken from the truck andmoved into the museum, it
started raining while a lot ofhis work was outside and these
are some of the pieces that hewas using straw and mud and just
(12:57):
different material that wasstarting to kind of fall off and
all of the installers andmuseum workers were frantically
trying to pull things inside andmeanwhile he's just standing
back saying it's okay, maybeit'll be better, yeah, you know,
and so.
So to me, like that's one ofthose things where that is a
complete embracing acceptance ofit's going to be whatever it's
(13:23):
supposed to be.
Yeah, so it's.
So I think of it in terms oflike what I, what I try to try
to take from that and what I tryto apply to that in terms of
just my thought process aroundthe work, is that I can
influence what happens, but Ican't control it and I don't
want to, because controlrequires precision and
(13:44):
perfectionism, which issomething that I'm actively
trying to avoid.
It's part of my personalitythat I really am working against
you know, with you know with mywork.
So from that, from Kiefer, it'sthat acceptance and that
embracing of you know it's goingto be what it's supposed to be
and if it changes, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
So, nathan, what do you expect that people take from
your?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
work.
My hope is that my work invitesexploration.
You know, everything that Imake is really an invitation to
explore.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, last night I experienced that myself.
People are allowed to tap, totouch, so that's something
unique.
In a gallery, in a museum, it'snot common and not, yeah,
accepted, but this time it's athing I, I, I want for that to
be something where, because itis very tactile, it's very
sculptural it's something that'svery durable.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It will hold up to being touched.
So, physically, you know,exploring it, looking at it from
different angles, especiallypieces that have, you know, a
lot of separation between thelayers this looks very different
from here than it does fromthere.
It looks very different in fulldaylight, with the skylight
versus, you know, artificiallight and so on a maybe a
broader level.
(14:59):
I think I want for people toreconsider what something is and
what something and, broadlyspeaking, what someone you know
can become.
Of course, the work meansdifferent things to me.
We were talking Domenico and Iwere speaking yesterday about
Louise Bourgeois, who's one ofmy absolute heroes as well, and
(15:21):
she had a quote that's one of myfavorites.
It's something I think about alot.
I'm going to paraphrase here.
I'm not going to get it exactlyright, but she said something
like if the work doesn't speakto you, then I have failed.
The work doesn't need to be, inother words, it doesn't need to
be explained.
Speak to you, then I havefailed.
The work doesn't need to be, inother words, it doesn't need to
be explained.
Burry said that many times aswell.
He resisted giving explanation.
(15:41):
You know for what the work wasabout and so I want for the work
, if I'm successful for thepiece, to speak directly to the
person and to invite their ownquestions.
You know for for themselves andmy hope is that, um, if it
makes a connection, that peoplewill want to just spend time
with it.
You know, one of my favoritethings from from the opening
(16:03):
last night was I told you thisbefore the show I said my night
will be complete when I seepeople really, really exploring.
Yeah, because a successful pieceto me is one that that works
from far away, you know, in alittle thumbnail, from a
distance, but it's alsosomething that really pulls you
in and says come closer, take acloser look.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
So, guys, this was four questions on Nathan's
program.
Join us for the show you.
Hello and welcome to another episode of Just Make Art
.
In today's episode we're goingto be sharing an interview that
was recorded in Munich rightafter the day after the opening
of my solo exhibition at GalleryBenjamin Eck.
This is an interview we hadn'treally planned on, but it was
kind of a follow-up to theconversation that I'd had with
Domenico Chirico.
That was recorded at theopening itself.
(00:33):
So that was shared in ourprevious episodes.
So go ahead and check that outif you are so inclined.
This was something that was alittle bit spur of the moment,
but Chris Fay, who's aphenomenal videographer and
filmmaker, good friend ofBenjamin's, had suggested that
we do another interview and sohe came in and set up a
phenomenal setup.
You'll see the lighting andeverything is just on point.
So if you're listening to thisand you want to go, check out
(00:56):
the YouTube version, it's therefor your viewing enjoyment.
But yeah, this is much more ofa casual chat.
This was after Benjamin and Ihad spent about a week together
hanging out and quite a bit oftime doing everything from going
to the airport to pick up themassive crate full of work to
installing the show, to justkind of connecting and chatting.
So this is a much more casualconversation than the more
(01:16):
formal one that we had had thenight before, which again was
shared in our previous episode.
If you want to go, check thatout.
But in this episode I did a verypoor job of sharing a Louise
Bourgeois quote, and so I wantto do that quote justice before
we get into the interview,because it is that good and
deserves to be shared properly.
So Louise said a work of artdoesn't have to be explained.
(01:38):
If you do not have any feelingabout this, I cannot explain it
to you.
If this doesn't touch you, Ihave failed, and this is
especially meaningful to mebecause it's funny how things
work out from a timingperspective.
Just this past weekend, I got achance to visit the Art
Institute of Chicago with my mom.
We were traveling for a familyreunion that was not too far
(01:59):
from Chicago and decided toschedule in an extra day to have
a little mother-son art timetogether, which is super cool,
but was not expecting to walkinto a room full of Louise's
work.
They've got currently sixsculptures of hers that were
made at very different periodsduring her almost 75-year career
of making work, and so it wasreally, really just awesome.
(02:23):
I mean absolute blast to goahead and look at that work with
my mom, who didn't have anycontext, obviously, for her work
or what it was about, and sothis quote was especially
interesting to view all thosepieces for me in person for the
first time, for sure, and for mymom to be seeing her work for
the first time ever, and itdefinitely inspired a really fun
(02:45):
conversation afterwards wherewe got to talk more about, you
know, what inspired her, herlife and those types of things,
which was just really cool.
But because I did such a bad jobof and you'll hear it when I
paraphrase this quote in theinterview itself, I wanted to
make sure and share that in itsproper and full form.
So, apart from that, we alsodiscuss how I got from painting
(03:07):
to what I'm doing now, how someof my childhood memories impact
what I'm doing today, myrelationship with materials in
terms of how I acquire them, howI find them, how I catalog them
and how I process material and,lastly, what I hope people take
from my work.
So with that, here's theinterview.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Hi, today we are with Nathan Turberg.
Four questions for him.
He's the alchemist in thegallery program, observing
materials, giving it a newcontext, a new soul.
So, nathan, have you everthought about switching to
painting, would you?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
like me to.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I don't think so With respect to Ratul.
Here we go again.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
You know it's interesting.
So I started painting.
That was the first thing that Idid and I enjoyed it.
I started painting, that wasthe first thing that I did and I
enjoyed it.
I found very quickly that whatI wanted to do visually could
not be accomplished in twodimensions, so I don't remember
exactly when it was, but I wasworking on a piece and I started
(04:07):
to sand a little bit, which youcan do a little bit on canvas.
But then I started to reallywork it and it wasn't long, of
course, before I punct bit, youknow, on canvas.
But then I started to reallywork it and it wasn't long, of
course, before I punctured, youknow, the canvas, and that was
that.
So from there I moved on towood panels, which just kind of
gave me more space, of course,to kind of sand and carve.
You know a little bit.
And then I remembered, you know,back to childhood.
(04:28):
My grandfather had a wood shopand I remember some of my
earliest memories are justwalking into his wood shop and
just the smell of fresh cut wood, seeing him, you know, all of
his tools lined up, just so, andit was just a magical place
where he was, just, he wasretired and just making
(04:48):
furniture, toys, you know,christmas gifts, that kind of
thing.
And so I started very young Igot a carving knife and would do
whittling and I would carve youknow little animals.
And so when I started workingwith wood, I started thinking
about you know what are someways that I can carve and just
manipulate and just get moredimension and more depth.
And so then I started workingwith wood that got more and more
(05:10):
thick two, three centimetersand that's kind of the first
series of work that I did wasalmost exclusively wood that was
carved and burned and that thenled me to everything that's
here adding different materials,building up layers, which is
what this show is about.
So I don't have any plans ongoing back to painting anytime
(05:31):
soon, but you never know.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I see.
So how do you?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
find your materials.
My antenna is always, always,always.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I mean even just walking around the city here.
I've seen some things that lookfamiliar.
There's some material that iseverywhere in the world, right
Like plastic is everywhere, tarpis everywhere, you know, wood
is, of course, but there's never, I've never, met a material
that I didn't at least want totry to experiment.
Right like plastic iseverywhere.
Tarp is everywhere, you know,wood is, of course, um, but
there's never, I've never met amaterial that I didn't at least
want to try to experiment with,you know.
So experimentation really isthe core of my studio practice,
(06:03):
it's the core of my work.
It's a curiosity to really getmy hands into things.
It's about the process.
Yes, I think of it asdissection, you know almost a
scientific, like what is this?
How can I get this down to itssort of essence and cut it down,
burn it down, how can I get itdown to its core and then from
(06:24):
there developing a relationshipwith the material?
That's kind of how I thinkabout.
It is like how can I sort oftame this wild beast that I
don't understand?
Initially, and after enoughrepetition and time and sort of
studying what can be done, I usea lot of heat, mostly melting,
some burning, but justdiscovering like some of these
(06:47):
materials for example, they'revery delicate there's a very,
very fine line between a nicelittle melt, where it can be
manipulated, and full flames andthen it's done.
But the beautiful thing aboutworking with discarded material
or trash is that for me, itprovides a tremendous amount of
freedom, Possibilities.
(07:07):
Possibilities yeah yeah, yeah,choice, choice, options.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, freedom.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
There's no limit to, I think, what can be done, and
there's also, I think, nopressure for me, because the
worst thing that can happen, theworst case, is that it becomes
trash Again, again, right, whichis what it was before you know,
but you give it a differentmeaning.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
The context is the transpiration of that's what
makes it unique.
Yes, a new soul.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I think you know I do .
I spoke with somebody aboutthis at the opening last night.
I have an appreciation for artthat is clearly found objects
where you can identify.
This is what that used to be.
I have a compulsion, a desire,an obsession with what else
(07:59):
could it be?
How can I make this throughprocess and experiment?
How can I make it lookdifferent than what it was
before?
I like for people to besurprised when I tell them what
it used to be.
I don't want for it to beimmediately obvious oh, that
used to be.
Whatever it is.
And so, from a sourcingstandpoint, one of my, one of
the not a rule, but somethingthat I try to stick to is having
(08:22):
sources for materials that arerenewable, or I know I can get
an almost endless supply, neverrun out, Correct, because it
takes a lot of time.
I've worked with some materialswhere I only had a finite
amount, mostly things that Ifound in like construction
dumpsters, mostly things that Ifound in like construction
dumpsters, some of my favoriteplaces to go and discover things
(08:43):
.
When I drive past aconstruction site and I see the
big, the big bins, I'm always,you know, peeking in and seeing.
You know what I can find, and Ifound some really delicious,
just amazing materials that I,by the time I, just by the time
I figured out how to use them.
I go back to my, my supply.
My studio is full of veryobsessive organization of
(09:03):
different materials and I goback to where it was and I
realize I'm out.
So that's kind of my worst notmy worst fear.
But I try to work with materialwhere I know I can always get
more of it.
So, just using this as anexample, the white layer on the
very inside of this is made offeed bags.
Some good friends of ours farmand raise chickens and so I just
(09:26):
hey, I need it, and they'vejust dumped full trash bags, you
know, full of them.
The billboard tarps I get inhuge, huge sections.
They're the big billboardadvertisements and so those are.
We're never going to run out ofthose unless we stop, you know,
advertising for things.
They're usually for attorneys,lawyers.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I don't see that.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
No, it's always a surprise when I unfold a new one
, what's going to be on theinside.
You know, with this one there'sa really interesting sort of
blue that kind of peeks through.
But some of the materials I'msourcing myself right.
So, like the coffee filters,I've got a pretty committed
coffee habit.
So, these are all from my ownpersonal reserve of materials,
(10:12):
but I rarely meet a materialthat I didn't at least want to
try.
Most of it doesn't work.
Most of it just isn't viable.
Ninety-seven% of my experimentsjust fail.
But it leads me to the nextthing, which is exciting for
sure.
(10:34):
Do you have any material that ismost fascinating for you so far
you ever worked with.
My latest obsession is metal.
There's something about theprocess of melting a solid metal
into a liquid form, pouring itinto a mold and then seeing it,
of course, add patinas you know,do different things with that.
I think that I'd like to saythat my favorite material I
(11:07):
probably haven't found yet.
I mean, I have a long, longlist of things that are in the
studio that I'm starting to playwith and experiment with that I
haven't what would be yourfirst choice.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Do you have any preferences?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
There's a material called coroplast and in in the
US we call them yard signs.
It's like, yeah, just plasticlike cardboard, but made of
plastic right.
And so there's a couple ofpieces that we have hanging in
front where the sculpturalelements are made of that
material.
But that's a very fun materialthat will respond very
(11:40):
differently to heat, but I canmelt it and bend it and then
when it cools it's rock, rocksolid, but it's a.
It's a great, great material.
But yeah, it's, for me it'sjust the fascination, the
discovery, the, the dissection,you know, to really pull things
apart, see what's and then seewhat can be done with them.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
So, Nathan, how do you feel about when people
compare you to Burry or AmazonKiefer?
So you're in the country ofKiefer.
How do you feel about that?
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I mean, those are some of my heroes absolutely,
and so I think there's actuallysomething from the talk.
Last night I was thinking inbed like I I wanted to from
Kiefer specifically, that I thatI really appreciate about his
approach to work in interviewsor the documentaries that I've
seen.
There's a story that I that Ilove thinking about and
(12:36):
repeating to people.
I can't recall whichdocumentary it's from, but
there's a.
He tells a story of a show ofhis being installed and as it's
being taken from the truck andmoved into the museum, it
started raining while a lot ofhis work was outside and these
are some of the pieces that hewas using straw and mud and just
(12:57):
different material that wasstarting to kind of fall off and
all of the installers andmuseum workers were frantically
trying to pull things inside andmeanwhile he's just standing
back saying it's okay, maybeit'll be better, yeah, you know,
and so.
So to me, like that's one ofthose things where that is a
complete embracing acceptance ofit's going to be whatever it's
(13:23):
supposed to be.
Yeah, so it's.
So I think of it in terms oflike what I, what I try to try
to take from that and what I tryto apply to that in terms of
just my thought process aroundthe work, is that I can
influence what happens, but Ican't control it and I don't
want to, because controlrequires precision and
(13:44):
perfectionism, which issomething that I'm actively
trying to avoid.
It's part of my personalitythat I really am working against
you know, with you know with mywork.
So from that, from Kiefer, it'sthat acceptance and that
embracing of you know it's goingto be what it's supposed to be
and if it changes, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
So, nathan, what do you expect that people take from
your?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
work.
My hope is that my work invitesexploration.
You know, everything that Imake is really an invitation to
explore.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, last night I experienced that myself.
People are allowed to tap, totouch, so that's something
unique.
In a gallery, in a museum, it'snot common and not, yeah,
accepted, but this time it's athing I, I, I want for that to
be something where, because itis very tactile, it's very
sculptural it's something that'svery durable.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It will hold up to being touched.
So, physically, you know,exploring it, looking at it from
different angles, especiallypieces that have, you know, a
lot of separation between thelayers this looks very different
from here than it does fromthere.
It looks very different in fulldaylight, with the skylight
versus, you know, artificiallight and so on a maybe a
broader level.
(14:59):
I think I want for people toreconsider what something is and
what something and, broadlyspeaking, what someone you know
can become.
Of course, the work meansdifferent things to me.
We were talking Domenico and Iwere speaking yesterday about
Louise Bourgeois, who's one ofmy absolute heroes as well, and
(15:21):
she had a quote that's one of myfavorites.
It's something I think about alot.
I'm going to paraphrase here.
I'm not going to get it exactlyright, but she said something
like if the work doesn't speakto you, then I have failed.
The work doesn't need to be, inother words, it doesn't need to
be explained.
Speak to you, then I havefailed.
The work doesn't need to be, inother words, it doesn't need to
be explained.
Burry said that many times aswell.
He resisted giving explanation.
(15:41):
You know for what the work wasabout and so I want for the work
, if I'm successful for thepiece, to speak directly to the
person and to invite their ownquestions.
You know for for themselves andmy hope is that, um, if it
makes a connection, that peoplewill want to just spend time
with it.
You know, one of my favoritethings from from the opening
(16:03):
last night was I told you thisbefore the show I said my night
will be complete when I seepeople really, really exploring.
Yeah, because a successful pieceto me is one that that works
from far away, you know, in alittle thumbnail, from a
distance, but it's alsosomething that really pulls you
in and says come closer, take acloser look.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
So, guys, this was four questions on Nathan's
program.
Join us for the show you.
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