Sculpting is a fascinating form of art as it offers a broad spectrum and at the same time requires painstaking efforts and accurate detailing. Every artist has a unique choice of medium for sculpting and some artists like our this week's 'Artist of the Week', Michael Beitz, creates other-worldly sculptures which leaves the viewer completely amazed. In the recent times, his project 'Dining Table' has gained a lot of appreciation. The reason I see, is not only its unusual (yet interesting) designing but the commentary on the project.

Though, the variety in his projects is incredible; from furniture to houses and from trees to installations. But what I find common in them is the way he turns everyday objects into something that makes you wonder. He plays with the ideas and comes up with an altogether a unique concept.

Picking projects to be featured here was quite a task for me but I have managed to choose some of them. Also, we got the opportunity to interview him and talk about his projects:





Michael, let's start with a brief introduction of yours.


I grew up in the town of Attica, a small town in western NY. I attended Alfred University, NYS
College of Ceramics where I started to focus on sculpture. After receiving a BFA from Alfred, I worked for the furniture artist Wendell Castle for several years, where I learned to make highly crafted furniture. My recent work has taken advantage of that experience as I use similar fabrication skills to make furniture inspired sculpture, exploring issues relating to the functional role of such objects in relation to our sense of self and other.

Slapper:


























If you could have one superhero (or magical) power, what would it be and why?

I would want the ability to heal people and other living and "non-living" things of illness and pain. I know, it's not flying or invisibility, but I have priorities when it comes to superpowers.

Installation:


























If you could make a master mix-tape of music that is inspiring you at the moment, what would it include? 

Zakir Hussain, Ravi Shankar, Townes Van Zandte, Johnny Cash, The Pogues, Cat Power, Leanard Cohen, Chopin, Modest Mouse, Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams.

Point:




























What influences the artist within you?

The phenomenal ability of an object to communicate what a human cannot is what keeps me coming back to the practice of making sculpture.

Bed:




























Have you always wanted to become an artist? How did you get into sculpting?

Yes, it is kind of typical I guess, but I have always made "art" and have always wanted to be an artist. I grew up in the country, so I did not have much exposure to art until I was older. I made a lot pit fired ceramic forms when i was a teenager, after seeing a film about Maria Martinez. I found clay in a local creek and fired it in my backyard, but the forms I could make with it were limited. I was excited about the entire process and started to make figurative forms with plaster. This was the beginning of my relationship with making three dimensional forms. I didn't know what I was doing, so it was all very experimental and exciting. Going to art school was like a dream for me.

Knot:

























Though all of your creations look awesome, but I particularly liked are the 'body/brick' and 'dining table' pieces. Tell us more about these wonderful projects. 

The "body brick" pieces were made mostly in Brooklyn, NY and were mainly casts of my own body that filled the voids of missing bricks that I observed in the buildings along my routes to work and home. Working as a furniture maker in NY while trying to make work of my own seemed impossible at times. The bricks were made almost out of pure desperation, to make some kind of mark or contribution in the urban landscape, which seemed to be suffocating me while also giving me such great pleasure. They are a direct reflection of how I felt in response to the architecture and to my life. To many viewers, they are kind of fun, but for me they are more serious, representing the soft human body as inseparable and part of the rigid architecture surrounding us.

Body/brick:












































'Dining table' also appears to be fun while capturing an obvious yet unconscious tension we are all familiar with. I guess that my experience as a furniture maker is finally expressing itself as commentary. The height of the "hump" in the middle of the table is very important for me, as it represents the necessary space for another person to walk in between the two people sitting, and underneath the table. I always see things in relation to the people around them and in this piece I wanted to create, at least for me, the silent, secret, or imaginary "other", that often creates a tension like the one demonstrated.

Dining Table:































































I know I'd be difficult to pick but we would love to know your favorite project so far?

Well, i have a couple, but "Folding House" in New Mexico is my most favorite. I sometimes argue that much of my work does not begin as an idea, but as a vision that I do not yet understand. And although this sounds cliche and corny for many, it is the truth and a very pleasurable one. Folding House started this way and since I was living in NYC at the time, there was no way I could make the piece, so I accepted a residency in New Mexico, where it was made in collaboration with friend and artist Matthew Viner Monroe. I was obsessed about making this thing and would do anything to make it possible. I found it to be incredibly challenging both physically and emotionally. For me it was a meditation on the constant cycle of construction and destruction within my own life, yet it was curiously entertaining and scary. It always seemed on the verge of collapsing, which is why it was so perfect. It was somewhat dangerous and rickety and I loved that. "Folding House" was in a big field and it did not have to comply with any rules or regulations, so I felt an extreme intimacy and freedom with it. I think it was the most beautiful thing I have ever made and unfortunately there are only a few people who were able to experience it before I buried it in the ground.

Folding House:





















































Share the best compliment you've ever received for your work.

I seem to only remember the insults, so I will share this one. During a studio visit when I walked a curator outside to look at my work, she looked instead at a snow bank near the work and said "I wish that was your art". I understood what she meant. It was beautiful and I too wish that I would have claimed the snow bank to be my creation, but I am too old fashioned for that kind of revolutionary ownership. I like to play with ideas and to challenge my own thinking in relation to conformity of thought and life, but I am specifically interested in how such ideas are processed through the handmade object, at least for now.


What has been the breakthrough point for your career or is it yet to come?

I would like to have one of those breakthrough points as soon as possible.


Do you have any dream project?

For the past year, I have been dreaming about several furniture forms that I need to make when I get a studio set up. "Parasite Table" is one of them. I have too many projects in my head, so I try to make the things I can, and draw the projects that are too big or impossible for me to make now.

Parasite Table Sketch:





























If you could peek inside the studio/toolbox of any designer/artist/craftsperson, whose would it be and why?

Louise Bourgeois because I imagine her tools to be as interesting as her work.


Many other artists would look up to you for inspiration. What message do you have for them?

Most everything I have to say is translated through my work.

Folding House:






Grounded:



Michael, thank you for the interview. We absolutely love what you're creating. E-junkie wishes you all the best for all your dream projects! We really look forward to your work.