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Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Fastest Route from a Cloud to a Cave

posted by on August 21 at 10:00 AM

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A detail of Leo Berk’s Rattling House (2008) [photographed by Mark Woods]

And one more view of this seemingly bemuscled, hand-sanded, surrealist object:

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Yesterday I posted the story of how Seattle artist Leo Berk ended up in a Mayan cave on the morning of September 12, 2001. Now here’s the short story (interrupted by a siren, so told in two audio files—sorry!) of how the cave made it out of his brain and into the gallery.













To listen to the entire In/Visible podcast with Berk, click here.

RSS icon Comments

1

Wow. I really think these podcasts will help me sleep. Thanks!

Posted by Insomniac | August 21, 2008 10:20 AM
2

Is this work in Seattle somewhere? I'm a little too lazy to go back and find yesterday's post...

Posted by Ziggity | August 21, 2008 10:32 AM
3

Wait -- yesterday's post gave me the impression this was just a drawing -- now I see there's an entire physical 3D rendering? That's seriously cool.

Posted by Fnarf | August 21, 2008 10:45 AM
4

boooooooooooooooring

Posted by um | August 21, 2008 10:45 AM
5

Hey, Jen, really enjoyed your article today on copyists. Just thought I'd say so.

Posted by Gloria | August 21, 2008 10:55 AM
6

This is pretty damn cool. What is it made of? You don't cite materials in your post, and I don't have sound at work to listen to the thing.

Posted by Greg | August 21, 2008 11:44 AM
7

Yeah, it's at the Hedreen Gallery at SU.

http://www.artaccess.com/galleries.cgi?m=1&g=230

Near Lark / Cafe Presse

Posted by joey | August 21, 2008 11:56 AM
8

If you're curious about the various whats, whys and hows of this exhibition, please join us this Saturday, August 23 at 1:30pm for a walk-through discussion of the work with the artist.

LEO at the LEE - An Artist Talk
Hedreen Gallery
Lee Center for the Arts
901 12th Ave (between Marion and Madison)
1:30pm

B.Y.O.B. (bring your own brevé)

Posted by Lawrimore Project | August 21, 2008 12:07 PM
9

Oh god. This is only interesting to head-in-the-sand artist types who've never been in or near an actual cave. These kinds of images are near-ubiquitous in cave geology; see: http://research.gg.uwyo.edu/kincaid/3dcave.htm

Posted by Caver | August 21, 2008 12:09 PM
10

Dear caver: your lamp has apparently gone out. Look at the pictures again. IT'S NOT JUST A COMPUTER RENDERING. It's an object.

Posted by Fnarf | August 21, 2008 1:16 PM
11

@9: You have been eaten by a grue. Start over (Y/N) ?

Posted by Greg | August 21, 2008 1:21 PM
12

@10 - Sure, it's an object, fine, whatever. I get that. Not dissimilar to what you can do with a 3d printer. What the piece lacks is any sort of indication as to what makes this cave special. I understand the artist had some sort of epiphany in this Mayan cave, and the experience sounds cool. Unfortunately, this piece tells me nothing about that experience, only that he really, really likes this cave. A thousand similar caves (including many more nearby, in the boring old USA) would look similar. What does this piece give me to set this cave, or this particular experience apart? Nothing I can tell.

Posted by Caver | August 21, 2008 1:44 PM
13

The guy made a model of THIS cave because THIS was the cave that he was in.

What's different about this cave? HE MADE A WORK OF ART OUT OF IT.

How can that possibly be so difficult to understand?

If you've got a big stash of these you made on your "3-D printer" that are just as good as this, why don't you tell us about them? Jesus.

"What's so special about Michaelangelo's 'David'? I got a dick, too, but nobody's lining up to see it" is what you're saying here.

Posted by Fnarf | August 21, 2008 2:07 PM
14

That's a straw man, Fnarf, and you know it.

This model is fine, but it doesn't inspire me. Michaelangelo's David inspires because it stands out from the thousands of other contemporary marble-sculptures-of-male-nudes on its aesthetic merits. Lots and lots of similar-sized blocks of marble have been wasted on failures where Michaelangelo succeeded. I don't see any parallel aesthetic merits with this work to make it stand out from any other 3d depiction of a cave.

So he spent time making a model of this cave. Bully for him. I'm really happy for him. But it doesn't do anything for me, and I'm not impressed just because he did something. That something just isn't that special.

Posted by Caver | August 21, 2008 2:58 PM
15

So leo's model doesn't stand out from the thousands of other 3D cave rednerings you've seen?

The top picture alone (the closeup) in this post blows my mind!

It's fine if you don't like, but don't transfer that into it's not really special -- because a lot of people think it's fucking amazing!

Posted by maybelle | August 21, 2008 7:00 PM
16

Gloria: Thank you!

Caver: Are you serious going to the mat over something you haven't actually seen? Oy. There's nothing saying you'll like any of this art. But seriously, you're the perfect audience for this. GO. SEE. IT.

Posted by Jen Graves | August 22, 2008 11:22 AM
17

@16 - Ok, I suppose it's only fair that I go see the actual work before I get too attached to my opinion about it. Fair enough. The forms of caves are definitely cool; I guess I'd like to know more about his personal experience of the place, because from what I can tell his work makes use of the form of the cave without conveying anything personal about his experience, which is (from what I can tell) what this piece is supposed to be about? But I could be wrong. I'll go and check it out.

Posted by Caver | August 22, 2008 3:32 PM
18

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