On the Cover:
Paloma Varga Weisz, Bumpman, 2002. Polychromed limewood and wood, 70 x 26 x 45 cm. Photo: Stefan Hostettler.
Editor’s Letter:
Patrick Strzelec, interviewed for this, our education issue, speaks of pushing his students to break boundaries. “You engage them by issuing the challenge,” says the artist and educator, who appears here along with the ISC’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Awards, which highlights the work of 12 young sculptors. The challenge for several other artists featured in this issue is working with textiles. Kiyomi Iwata creates works from such materials as silk, paired with poetry, to parse differences between East and West, North and South, while, as Kay Whitney explains, Maria Lai, who died in 2013, employed fabric and other materials as vehicles “for exploring the traditions” of her native Sardinia. Rather than textile pieces, Jeanne Silverthorne produces—alongside mixed-media works using platinum silicone rubber—texts written in invisible ink. And though Paloma Varga Weisz doesn’t employ texts when she makes her bronzes, ceramics, and woodcarvings, she thinks of herself “more like a storyteller, narrating through sculpture.” Just as a teacher goads students to better work, art challenges us, as viewers, to engage with it fully. Consider this issue a gauntlet gently thrown, defying you not to revel in its many pleasures. —Daniel Kunitz
