This is my sculpture for the Iron Stone Symposium and the 7th International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art, completed in June, 2014. It is on permanent display at the Pedvale Open Air Art Museum in Pedvale, Talsu Novads, Latvia.
Sekimori Ishi
St. Francis
My Saint Francis sculpture was on display at the Si. Francis Retreat center in DeWitt, Michigan for their “Inner Landscape” show, from May 2 to June 12, 2014.
My Guardian Kitty
We used to have a cat. He adopted us one very cold morning, when Mary found him hunkered down in a partly clear space under our kitchen bay window. He came with us to Grand Rapids, and finally got old, with diabetes and kidney problems. One warm day, at the end, he went out in our backyard to die. We thought that we would find him under his favorite tree, but he disappeared. We never found a trace of his body, even with the help of our neighbor’s dog. One friend suggested that he was raptured.
This winter, I have been finding cat tracks in the snow. The cat sometimes comes through the backyard, and visits the bird feeder before continuing to the front yard. He usually stops at the corner of the garage door, checking for mice, I presume. He then continues down our front walk, stops at the Iron Will sculpture, then jumps down between the house and the front bushes.
I have never actually seen this cat, but the tracks are there almost every morning. If he is a Guardian Kitty, or GK, my wife suggests that we call him Chesterson, or Cheshire for short.
What do you think? Is this the ghost of our late cat, or did he tell one of his friends to keep an eye on us, after he was gone?
I suppose he could be this dude, but I have not seen this cat making tracks.
Daniel Postellon – at the confluence of human and nature
I am reviewed in the Rusyn Art blog.
In June 2014 The Pedvale Open-Air Art Museumin Latvia hosted the 7th International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art. It is a globally important academic event that, among other things, enables contemporary artists in the field to work together and to contribute their ideas to the discussion about the influence of the sculptural iron casting on contemporary art and landscape transformation. One of the permanent exhibits will be constructed on-site, drawing an inspiration from a Japanese land art movement Mono-Ha, by a sculptor born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Daniel Postellon.
For Postellon, the sources of creativity are innumerable: cosmic events, art movements, science, history, geography, religion, works of other artists. His work is thoroughly premeditated, it is informed, and in its attempt at representation it becomes metaphorical, layered. The very act of combining natural and artificial materials enables him to draw from the position of humans as part of the nature, but also…
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Design of Sekimori Ishi for Pedvale
This is a design for Sekimori Ishi, to allow construction on-site at Pedvale. The sculpture consists of an unmodified granite boulder, about 4 feet tall, (1.2 meters) and 5 cast iron pieces which are bolted together. This will be permanently sited outdoors at Pedvale Open Air Museum. The proposed sculpture is an iron and granite representation of a sekimori-ishi, which is a feature of many Japanese gardens.. This sculpture was inspired by Nabuo Sekine and the Mono Ha movement. Mono Ha is a Japanese art movement related to Land Art, which encouraged the production of objects, usually of natural materials. If you grow up in Pittsburgh, cast iron is a natural material.
The sculpture is based on the traditional sekimori ishi, as used in Japanese gardens. The term means “boundary guard stone”. As shown below, this is a small boulder, tied with garden twine, which forms a handle. Sometimes, this is a metaphorical warning to “stay on the right path”. At other times, it refers to a danger or unpleasantness along that branch of the path. It can also be a request for privacy. This is a polite request, that can be easily ignored by stepping over the stone or moving it.
Sekimori ishi at the Chicago Botanic Gardens
This is the original maquette, solid aluminum cast in one piece around a granite stone. The full size sculpture will mimic this visually, but the “arms” will be hollow, and will not join at the bottom of the stone. The “ring” has been slightly modified, and rotated 45 degrees. It should appear possible to pick up the sculpture with the lifting ring on the top, but it will actually be lifted with a sling, and the iron pieces are not actually used for lifting. The idea is to give the Japanese symbol the style of 19th century industrial iron. This could be interpreted as a post-industrial comment on the abuses of 19th century industrialization.
The arms will be made at Pedvale from gray cast iron. They will have an open rectangular cross section, with the open end facing the boulder, which is approximately 4 foot tall. (1.2 meters).
Dimensions of the arms are D=6 inches (15 cm), B= 3 inches (7.5 cm) t=1/2 to 5/8 inches (1 to 2 cm), depending on material available to make the casting patterns.
cross section of arms
There are 4 arms, at right angles to each other. For identification, label them north, east, south, and west, like a compass. They do not need to be oriented to the compass direction when the sculpture is sited.
The arms will be curved to fit the boulder, and have squared-off ends. They will be bolted to the boulder through a hole in each end. The bolts, made of threaded steel rod, will be anchored in the boulder using a commercial, long set up time epoxy.
Arm
The lifting ring has been re-designed to have a round, 12 inch diameter circular hole. (20 cm in diameter). This should be large enough, so that viewers can not get their heads stuck in the sculpture.
top ring
The ring will be cast in one piece with a cross shaped plate at right angles to the ring, with a square piece between them.
bottom of lifting ring piece.
square middle layer of lifting ring
The plate will be bolted to the 4 arms with 1/2 inch diameter threaded rod,or a metric equivalent. This will pass through the upper end of the arm, then the cross shaped part of the lifting ring, them into an epoxy-filled hole in the boulder. Loc-tite or something similar will be used to prevent the nuts from being removed.
assembly of arm to lifting ring piece
The arms will slide over the protruding ends of the cross shaped lower piece of the ring assembly, in a mortise and tennon joint. There are two threaded rods holding each arm, one at each end. The rods are placed and set in epoxy after the lifting ring and the arms are placed and fitted to the boulder.
assembly
As the arms do not actually cross at the bottom, the first few inches of the sculpture will be buried in gravel, to hide the lower end. This should make it appear that the arms cross under the boulder. If possible, I would like to use very small crushed limestone, and ram it into place. This may be mixed with local clay, if it is available. I have see lime-clay-flint foundations over 1000 years old in Winchester, England.
As a final addition, I would like to bolt a large piece of cast aluminum to at least one of the lower arm ends to act as a sacrificial anode. This can be any locally acquired scrap aluminum. Since aluminum is more reactive than iron, this will corrode in preference to the iron. This technique has been used to protect street railway rails, plumbing, and marine vessel hardware. I might cast these pieces at home, before the conference.
http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Analytical_Chemistry/Electrochemistry/Case_Studies/Corrosion/Sacrificial_Anode
The Making of Tunguska II
As part of ongoing experiments with expendable molds, I will be making another Tunguska sculpture. As you may know, the Tunguska event occurred about 100 years ago in Siberia.
First, I have brewed a batch of mint tea:
mint tea
This is not for drinking. I will be making paper maché and pasting cardboard using wheatpaste. The recipe I have says to add peppermint oil. I don’t have any, but I do have lots of mint, so I am using freshly brewed mint tea, instead of water. One part flour to four parts mint tea, mix well and boil for 2 minutes.
wheat paste
That gelled quite quickly, after enough heat was applied. It looks like mint pudding. Next I need a bag of sand to use as a base. Tunguska I used a granite cobble, but the sand bag can be removed after casting. This should leave a hollow aluminum shell, with holes in it.
bag of sand
The next step is to surround the future hole with a cardboard skirt. Trapazoids work well, and they are glued to each other and to the plastic bag.
bottom cardboard layer
I put my tin can mold over the hole, and cast a “cookie” using paper maché. This was made from wheat paste and paper sstrips that had been soaking for several days.
cookie
This process is repeated until the bag of sand is covered. The paper maché is allowed to dry thoroughly.
multiple cookies where holes will be
The gaps between the paper mache cookies are bridged with cardboard, and taped. A hole is left to attach a foam sprue, made from packing foam and a toilet paper inner roll.
top layer of cardboard
The whole assembly is packed in dry sand, and the sprue is filled with molten aluminum.
cast with sprue
After this cools, the sprue is removed, the sand emptied, and the piece is soaked in water to remove the cardboard. It is then power washed.
sculpture, ready to mount
Finally, the sculpture is mounted on a cast iron base. This base was once the base of a sump pump. A new hole was drilled in the center, which as then tapped for a 3/8 inch threaded rod.
Tunguska II The finished work
Tunguska II
Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts
My sculptures were on display at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts from June 7 to August 18, 2013. Package was purchased by a collector.
Package
Tunguska
Sekimori Ishi, granite and aluminum
Sculpture by Daniel Postellon 