WRITINGS BY BRADFORD GRAVES

The problem is having to translate into words what is totally a visual experience. In order to fully comprehend sculpture, a visual, three dimensional object, it has to be seen. Reading about it isn't going to help that much and photographs are only a slight improvement, since photos are flat images and cannot convey the full, spatial qualityof a three dimensional object. I can only hope that I will be able to create an interest in sculpture that will lead the reader to a direct interaction with sculpture. If we read a guide book to the Taj Mahal, it will tell us how to locate the building and find items that are within, but it isn't a substitute for the direct experience of that wonder. It's nice to know where the marble is from, who's buried there, etc., but to experience the art that is there is to feel the rush of space within. For better or for worse, we have chosen to store and transmit information through the written word, due to its accessibility, but knowledge is stored not only in the written word but also in visual images, and sounds. I can give you certain information on sculpture, but true knowledge can only be found in direct perception of sculpture. Knowledge - the understanding of what is known - can only be a tool. What I am going to do in the following pages is to help the student of sculpture develop tools, to isolate components, to define and extract essentials to begin to appreciate what sculpture is. The utilization of these tools add up to an intelligent way of looking at sculpture. I do not want to write about what art is, that unknown quantity and quality, that is always one step ahead of understanding. Rather, I want to deal with what can be known, that which is universal to all sculpture, such as how the individual parts are put together to make a total statement. What is unique to any piece of sculpture is the way in which these components fit together and that's why each piece of sculpture becomes a separate, emotional experience.

​

These tools will be used differently by the viewer than by the sculptor. The viewer uses these tools as a means to an end, the fullest appreciation of sculpture. The sculptor will challenge these concepts to escape their definition, which in fact is what tradition is, definitions from the past. We sculptors, students, viewers, are all coming from different places, geographically as well as psychologically, bringing with us our baggage of unique perceptions, as well as unique hindrances. For example, the physcian who collects Pre-Columbian art because of its graphic representation of ancient diseases is not dealing with the abstract qualities of sculpture. His interest is turned away from the individual art work to what his own information is bringing to the piece. There is a tendency to set up mirrors within us so that we are always perceiving ourselves rather than a new vision. The difficulty is in finding a balance between our world within, and outside phenomenon. Perception should be more than soaking up the world through our immediate senses. We must bring our sensibilities to bear, and heighten our ability to conceptualize. The viewer must put as much work into viewing the sculpture as the sculptor did into making it. Viewing has to be more than a passive activity.

Our sense of sight is one of our neglected senses. We are conditioned early in life to rarely use our eyes to see three dimensionally, except in times of personal danger. For example, if I cross the street now, how long will it take the car coming up the road to intersect my path? We use our eyes to gain information from two dimensional materials such as books, films, television, photos, and everyday directional signs. As a result, we perceive from left to right, but rarely from our body centers away. It is implied that we are passive in between left and right. If we become active, left or right ceases to have meaning, and we have entered the realm of the third dimension.  In order to perceive sculpture we will have to become Alice - locate the looking glass, go through it, and like her, find a new world.