WEBVTT 00:00:07.900 --> 00:00:10.900 [Arlene Shechet: Pentimento in Paper] 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:17.940 [Dieu Donné Paper Studio, New York City] 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:26.040 [SHECHET] I have this impulse to put a whole block of color on the wood. 00:00:26.040 --> 00:00:26.980 [ASSISTANT] Yeah. 00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:55.040 [SHECHET] The thing that's unseen is sometimes way more interesting 00:00:55.050 --> 00:00:57.750 than what people want you to see. 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:01.880 It's like looking at a construction site-- 00:01:01.890 --> 00:01:03.880 there are the things you don't see. 00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:05.800 There are the bones. 00:01:05.810 --> 00:01:07.930 They can be beautiful. 00:01:12.880 --> 00:01:18.180 All of these molds have been made in my studio upstate. 00:01:18.189 --> 00:01:24.109 And what they are is they're molds of things that have happened in my studio 00:01:24.109 --> 00:01:25.950 as I'm working with the clay. 00:01:25.950 --> 00:01:31.930 Like, here. These are just my fingers in the clay. 00:01:33.580 --> 00:01:37.639 I happened to have a brick that had glaze on it, 00:01:37.639 --> 00:01:40.649 so this actually the surface of glaze. 00:01:40.649 --> 00:01:44.249 See, that is the fire brick. 00:01:46.960 --> 00:01:54.420 Some of the paper pieces actually have a record of this clay process. 00:01:57.020 --> 00:01:58.039 At the end of the day, I'll say, 00:01:58.039 --> 00:01:59.849 "Oh, this looks really scenic," 00:01:59.849 --> 00:02:03.509 Or, "I like that way that tool makes that mark." 00:02:03.509 --> 00:02:11.009 So they're actually pentimenti of my sculpture-making process. 00:02:14.100 --> 00:02:19.960 I really love the idea of color and form being one thing. 00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:23.980 It's not that I've painted on the paper, 00:02:23.980 --> 00:02:25.610 it's that the color is the paper 00:02:25.610 --> 00:02:29.350 and it goes pretty deep into that. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:35.940 --[SHECHET] We could do yellow mush. 00:02:35.940 --> 00:02:37.480 --[ASSISTANT] This, with a little yellow in it. 00:02:37.480 --> 00:02:38.440 --[SHECHET] Or just... 00:02:38.440 --> 00:02:39.500 --[ASSISTANT] Or just yellow. 00:02:39.500 --> 00:02:40.660 --[SHECHET] ...that bright... 00:02:42.330 --> 00:02:47.450 [SHECHET] In that way, it's very similar to working with the clay, 00:02:47.450 --> 00:02:52.300 where the glaze and the clay become one thing-- 00:02:52.300 --> 00:02:54.980 one structure--a surface and form. 00:03:06.420 --> 00:03:07.820 --[SHECHET] So fun. 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:20.240 [SHECHET] The thing about working with paper is the immediacy of that entire process. 00:03:20.900 --> 00:03:26.100 I love--I love--seeing the thing and responding. 00:03:26.110 --> 00:03:28.980 --I think it throws it off a little, so... 00:03:28.980 --> 00:03:32.520 [SHECHET] My assistants say that I make decisions really quicky. 00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:36.319 --Chelsea, I think we should just press the cotton on this. 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:37.260 I love that feeling, 00:03:37.260 --> 00:03:39.920 and for me, maybe that's being in the zone, 00:03:39.920 --> 00:03:41.430 like, "Oh, let's let it rip." 00:03:41.430 --> 00:03:46.450 Like, just take this chance because there's another one right over there. 00:03:46.450 --> 00:03:49.630 That's why I work on five or six pieces at the same time. 00:03:50.250 --> 00:03:54.270 --I still would like to see if we can get some of that mojo going 00:03:54.270 --> 00:03:57.490 --that was happening with this, 00:03:57.490 --> 00:04:02.540 --of making the sculpture and tearing away. 00:04:04.160 --> 00:04:05.880 --Here, check it out. 00:04:07.980 --> 00:04:10.840 I always talk about this like it's an athletic event 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:18.000 because it's just, like, really thinking about it a lot the day before. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:21.680 It's basically a month of preparation before coming in. 00:04:22.380 --> 00:04:24.240 --24-karat gold! 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:25.860 It's expensive to do this. 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:26.870 --Very expensive! 00:04:26.870 --> 00:04:31.090 And we really need to consolidate our time and use it. 00:04:34.759 --> 00:04:38.819 The fun of it is that you were prepared, but then you don't know anything. 00:04:39.260 --> 00:04:41.740 --Oh, and then we have some holes. 00:04:42.640 --> 00:04:44.320 --Natural holes. 00:04:52.520 --> 00:04:57.499 Sometimes, the work that we do on a given layer never shows up. 00:04:57.499 --> 00:04:59.389 You never know it's there. 00:04:59.389 --> 00:05:02.699 Although, I believe in the energy of it underneath. 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:10.560 There's a certain physicality to it that is exciting to me. 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:15.160 --[SHECHET] It might be better this way. 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:15.840 --[ASSISTANT] Yeah. 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:34.640 --[SHECHET] The terracotta is beautiful! 00:05:35.420 --> 00:05:40.660 One other way that this is similar to working in ceramics 00:05:40.669 --> 00:05:45.549 is that it never looks as good as it looks when it's wet. 00:05:49.260 --> 00:05:51.479 This color is so good, 00:05:51.479 --> 00:05:54.020 and you mix it, and you love it, 00:05:54.020 --> 00:05:56.820 and then it dries, and it's lighter. 00:05:57.639 --> 00:06:01.249 What I'm always pining for is the wet. 00:06:01.249 --> 00:06:05.409 It's closer to the aliveness of the actual experience. 00:06:07.400 --> 00:06:11.120 So in ceramics, you make it, it's wet, you love it; 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:12.719 it's dry, it looks horrible. 00:06:12.719 --> 00:06:15.979 You fire the first firing, it looks horrible. 00:06:15.979 --> 00:06:19.519 And then you have to bring it back to life with the glaze. 00:06:25.840 --> 00:06:29.840 [Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston] 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:38.880 I got a letter saying, "Show up here and we'll teach you how to make paper." 00:06:38.889 --> 00:06:39.759 That's a situation. 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:44.519 It doesn't have any answers, it just provides a forum. 00:06:45.300 --> 00:06:52.520 It provides a way to create that lateral expansion of the practice 00:06:52.529 --> 00:06:56.099 without knowing where it's going to go-- 00:06:56.099 --> 00:06:58.259 and I'm hungry for that. 00:07:03.610 --> 00:07:08.960 I'm in awe of people who do the same thing for their whole lives; 00:07:08.960 --> 00:07:12.900 but, it would not fit, in any way, my restlessness 00:07:12.900 --> 00:07:19.260 and my desire to investigate on a much broader scale.