January 17, Saturday
By the morning of the third and final day, Steuart still had three boxes sitting on the base. Nothing melted, nothing more. Several of the tabs on each side of each box were frozen in place. They would be supports to attach the flaps that would suggest this was a stack of opened boxes -- something that was destined for the recycling bin. He called the sculpture "Promises" when he sent the drawing and artist statement with his application to the competition.
While I helped by holding the power supply for the iron, a spectator asked what Promises meant, and I said, "what was in the boxes." The material was transparent, and implied emptiness. Drips from attaching boxes on top of boxes ran down the faces of the lower ones; drips from smoothing the top edge and deliberate melting of the surface had left the ice with a texture nicely reminiscent of cardboard. The whole piece has a nice quality of not being very tangible. Yet very ordinary.
Les Cartons people said when they figured out what Steaurt was making. He likes the idea of rising refuse to a pedestal.
By the time the sun rose over the Galibier, and space blankets were brought out to protect the ice from the sun, most everyone's sculpture was at a place where its form could be recognized. A French guy, Pascal from Provence, had gotten his bear recognizable and the sheep underneath it, too. It made me smile. It was funny. There was a pile of chain links, a frog, a bonsai tree, a very modern elevator, a pyramid mix of snow and ice, a water bottle and graceful flame-shaped abstractions. One piece was carved on the ground by a French woman from Paris who hollowed out two halves of a bottle leaving a level of fluid appearing in the bottom of it, with a depression that looked a little like a pear was also in the bottle. On this morning there were four guys from the French army helping her lift the human sized bottle to the vertical, and then raise it into the air to set it on the meter high base. They were quite amused by their work.
The army trains in Valloire so they are ready for mountain operations. Each young Frenchman must still do obligatory national service, and for these men it involved helping artists. So French.
Lunch back at the Relais de Galibier was a great couscous salad followed by a Savoy-style Beef Burgundy. The wine was always the same, a red wine from Languedoc - across to the southwest of France. And it appeared on the table lunch and dinner, and was gone before coffee.
Lunch lasted until 3 or so, and Steuart slowly made his way back out to the pile of boxes. The freezing together of the parts was going very slowly, and he'd started to carve a checkered pattern into the snow base but was fearful that the snow that have been exposed to a lot of heat in the days before we arrived was going to collapse and send the entire stack to the ground.
When I arrived just before sunset, box four and five were sitting on his work table, and the flaps were having a hard time sticking. He added a solid block - an ice cube (four or six times the size of a drinks cube as the very topmost box. t would have to wait for a long while to see its place on top. For the next two hours Steuart put flaps on the bottom three boxes.
At seven thirty the pile was complete. Thirty minutes before the end of the competition. Steaurt are you finished? the chief of entertainment for the town of Valloire asked from the microphone. The jury would take its first look at the piece at 8 pm., followed by the spectacle of lights would begin, and the promenade of spectators would come by. The army guys were carrying away all the unused ice, the removed snow, the tools, the tables, and making the ground nice around each sculpture. I want to keep the little blocks around the bases, Steuart tried to explain to them. It worked. He was done with 15 minutes to spare. Took a couple pictures under the spotlights. He had achieved a very voluminous piece from just one meter by one meter by ½ meter of ice. The finished piece stood two meters high on a meter high base. 12 feet.
The jury took in all 15 of the sculptures together, talking making notes, and then returning to the Relais for dinner and discussion, and the artists to their final dinner of the competition.
More Languedoc wine accompanied a duck breast in a lovely light sauce and baked potatoes slices. Here I am in France, walking everywhere, eating and drinking really well, and my pants are feeling loose. This is a great life.
By the morning of the third and final day, Steuart still had three boxes sitting on the base. Nothing melted, nothing more. Several of the tabs on each side of each box were frozen in place. They would be supports to attach the flaps that would suggest this was a stack of opened boxes -- something that was destined for the recycling bin. He called the sculpture "Promises" when he sent the drawing and artist statement with his application to the competition. While I helped by holding the power supply for the iron, a spectator asked what Promises meant, and I said, "what was in the boxes." The material was transparent, and implied emptiness. Drips from attaching boxes on top of boxes ran down the faces of the lower ones; drips from smoothing the top edge and deliberate melting of the surface had left the ice with a texture nicely reminiscent of cardboard. The whole piece has a nice quality of not being very tangible. Yet very ordinary.
Les Cartons people said when they figured out what Steaurt was making. He likes the idea of rising refuse to a pedestal.
By the time the sun rose over the Galibier, and space blankets were brought out to protect the ice from the sun, most everyone's sculpture was at a place where its form could be recognized. A French guy, Pascal from Provence, had gotten his bear recognizable and the sheep underneath it, too. It made me smile. It was funny. There was a pile of chain links, a frog, a bonsai tree, a very modern elevator, a pyramid mix of snow and ice, a water bottle and graceful flame-shaped abstractions. One piece was carved on the ground by a French woman from Paris who hollowed out two halves of a bottle leaving a level of fluid appearing in the bottom of it, with a depression that looked a little like a pear was also in the bottle. On this morning there were four guys from the French army helping her lift the human sized bottle to the vertical, and then raise it into the air to set it on the meter high base. They were quite amused by their work.
The army trains in Valloire so they are ready for mountain operations. Each young Frenchman must still do obligatory national service, and for these men it involved helping artists. So French.
Lunch back at the Relais de Galibier was a great couscous salad followed by a Savoy-style Beef Burgundy. The wine was always the same, a red wine from Languedoc - across to the southwest of France. And it appeared on the table lunch and dinner, and was gone before coffee.
Lunch lasted until 3 or so, and Steuart slowly made his way back out to the pile of boxes. The freezing together of the parts was going very slowly, and he'd started to carve a checkered pattern into the snow base but was fearful that the snow that have been exposed to a lot of heat in the days before we arrived was going to collapse and send the entire stack to the ground.
When I arrived just before sunset, box four and five were sitting on his work table, and the flaps were having a hard time sticking. He added a solid block - an ice cube (four or six times the size of a drinks cube as the very topmost box. t would have to wait for a long while to see its place on top. For the next two hours Steuart put flaps on the bottom three boxes.
At seven thirty the pile was complete. Thirty minutes before the end of the competition. Steaurt are you finished? the chief of entertainment for the town of Valloire asked from the microphone. The jury would take its first look at the piece at 8 pm., followed by the spectacle of lights would begin, and the promenade of spectators would come by. The army guys were carrying away all the unused ice, the removed snow, the tools, the tables, and making the ground nice around each sculpture. I want to keep the little blocks around the bases, Steuart tried to explain to them. It worked. He was done with 15 minutes to spare. Took a couple pictures under the spotlights. He had achieved a very voluminous piece from just one meter by one meter by ½ meter of ice. The finished piece stood two meters high on a meter high base. 12 feet.
The jury took in all 15 of the sculptures together, talking making notes, and then returning to the Relais for dinner and discussion, and the artists to their final dinner of the competition.
More Languedoc wine accompanied a duck breast in a lovely light sauce and baked potatoes slices. Here I am in France, walking everywhere, eating and drinking really well, and my pants are feeling loose. This is a great life.
