Axial Stones : An Art of Precarious Balance

by QUASHA, GEORGERATCLIFF, CARTER

• ISBN13: 9781556435751
• ISBN10: 1556435754
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2006-06-09
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Summary

George Quasha's extraordinary sculptures unite natural stones in a state of breathtakingly improbable balance. The stones are not altered physically or bonded in any way; rather, Quasha discovers an unknown axis that brings them into radical alignment. The stones "learn" this state of levity in contrast to their ordinary state of gravity, resulting in a new art form that feels alive with its own individual energy and personality. Here, 37 axial stones are displayed in dazzling full-page color photos. The accompanying text explains not only how the stones were found and eventually came together, but explores the aesthetic, philosophical, spiritual, and practical implications of an art of danger and impermanence. "Action pages" document the processthe repeated setting up, balancing, losing balance, and fallinguntil the full axial stone is born: a whole being greater and more real than the sum of its parts.

Author Biography

Artist and poet George Quasha works across mediums to explore principles in common within language, sculpture, drawing, video, sound, installation, and performance. His axial stones and axial drawings have been exhibited at the Baumgartner Gallery in Chelsea (New York City) and elsewhere. For art is: Speaking Portraits (in the performative indicative), he has filmed over 400 artists, poets, and composers (in 6 countries and 15 languages) saying "what art is." His video works (including Pulp Friction, Axial Objects, Verbal Objects) have appeared internationally in museums, galleries, schools, and biennials. A 25 year performance collaboration (video/language/sound) continues with Gary Hill and Charles Stein. His 15 books include poetry (Somapoetics, Giving the Lily Back Her Hands, Ainu Dreams [with Chie Hasegawa], Preverbs); anthologies (America a Prophecy [with Jerome Rothenberg], Open Poetry [with Ronald Gross], An Active Anthology [with Susan Quasha], The Station Hill Blanchot Reader); and writing on art (Gary Hill: Language Willing; with Charles Stein: Tall Ships, HanD HearD/liminal objects, Viewer). Awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He has taught at Stony Brook (SUNY), Bard College, the New School, and Naropa University. With Susan Quasha he is founder/publisher of Barrytown/Station Hill Press in Barrytown, New York.

Carter Ratcliff is a poet, art critic, and Contributing Editor of Art in America. His writings have appeared widely, in European and American journals and in the publications of museums in the US and abroad, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Guggenheim Museum (New York), and the Royal Academy (London). His books of poetry include Fever Coast and Give Me Tomorrow. Among his books on art are Out of the Box: The Reinvention of Art, 1965-1975 and The Fate of a Gesture: Jackson Pollock and Postwar American Art. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.