Stone as Actor, Stone as Stage

The rock is not merely material or mineral; you are not just a maker exerting control over the rock. Rock and humans are all loci for slow and fast, discernible or evanescent processes, and way stations for exchanges, associations, and learnings. Let our work reflect on the stone as both an actor with its own geological and cultural experiences and a stage on which we (and others) enact, project, and enrich ourselves. This class acknowledges our kinship and our evident otherness from stone. In our discussions and encounters with stone, our respective material strengths and vulnerabilities will drive the range of our interconnectedness and relationships to stone. Our personal and planetary fates are tied. What can we learn from activating the stage of the quarry and enacting the agency of stone?

Basic stone working tools and reasonable quantities of stone are provided. You will need safety equipment (safety eyewear, work gloves, earmuffs, dust masks, sturdy work shoes), weatherproof clothes, sunscreen, and a swimsuit. Please bring some drawing materials and any reference printouts or notes. There is no printer on site. Bring any tools or special materials you may want to use in dialog with stone, for instance, fabric, props, a musical instrument, or pertinent reading or media materials to share.

Course leader

Neha Choksi

Target group

No experience with stone required. A willingness to work outdoors and an openness to conversations with each other, the stone, and the environment.

Course aim

Together, we will converse with the unique setting of the quarry and the ancient material of the Untersberger marble. You will have a chance to discuss and develop your ideas individually and in a supportive cohort throughout the three-week session. Each of us will generate ideas at the quarry to make work with and about stone. We will learn by researching and mapping the senses of stone—for instance, by knocking stones together, reading poetry to the stones, echoing our dancing steps in the quarry—and by sharing with each other sounds, textures, and embodied live gestures that link our body’s fate with that of the earth. Choksi and Holzl will support your conceptual and technical questions around stone sculpture. In addition, you are welcome to use photo, video, audio, frottage, and live or private performances in conjunction with the material of stone to develop your art.