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Taking A Deep Breath
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Joan Livingstone's "Spike."
U
ndoubtedly, most sculptors
take deep breaths as they
work. After all, forging
clay, metal, glass or fabric
into a work of art is nothing short
of exhausting. Sculptor Joan Liv-
ingstone, however, has made her
breath part of her work — sort of.
Actually, it seems as if Ms. Liv-
ingstone has captured her
breaths within the folds, turns
and twists of her fabric sculp-
tures, whose felt exteriors re-
semble the taut and not-so-taut
skin that covers everything hu-
man.
"Cloth is not bronze, heroic and
permanent," said Ms. Livingstone
in a recent review of her work.
"It's ephemeral, like people's
lives."
A collection of Ms. Living-
stone's sculptures are on exhib-
it at the Sybaris Gallery in Royal
Oak until Jan. 14. Her work was
also shown at the gallery in 1992.
The gallery is known for its
showing of cutting-edge interna-
tional three-dimensional artists
working in wood, fiber, metal,
glass and clay. "Joan Livingstone
is recognized as one of the most
innovative sculptors in her field,"
said Linda Ross, co-director of the
Sybaris Gallery.
It might be helpful when view-
ing Ms. Livingstone's exhibit to
remember to take a deep breath,
then let it out. As in an action tak-
en by all living creatures.
Ms. Livingstone, who received
her master of fine arts from Cran-
brook Academy of Art in 1974,
has gone beyond mere symme-
try. Beyond attempting to repli-
cate her study of organic forms.
Rather she is most concerned
with creating life-like abstract
shapes that challenge interpre-
tations of mundane, everyday ob-
jects like a spike and a propeller.
And she's also been inspired by
the most earthly activity of
breathing and swallowing stones.
Swallowing stones? Well, she
does have a playful imagination.
The two most striking pieces
in the exhibit are aptly titled
"Breathing Lessons," and "Swal-
lowing Stones."
"Swallowing
Stones"
is a sensuous form
of long drops.
Stretched along the wall at
the naturally lit Sybaris Gallery,
"Breathing Lessons" demon-
strates Ms. Livingstone's inno-
vative and warmhearted
approach. The forms — satu-
rated with resins, glues and
waxes — resemble fragments of
human organs and limbs. Yet
they are far from unattached ap-
pendages, or lifeless. Ms. Liv-
ingstone, an associate professor
in the fiber department at the
School of the Art Institute of
Chicago, offers shapes seeming-
ly suspended between inhaling
and exhaling, yet fully affected
by gravity — and age. The de-
flated — or inflated — pieces of
"Breathing Lessons" present a
fluid arrangement of uncon-
nected sculptural works.
"Swallowing Stones," a sen-
suous form of long drops held to-
gether within a syrup-like
globule, shows Ms. Livingstone's
knack for a conceptual surprise.
"I'm very aware that it's easy to
make sculpture but quite diffi-
cult to communicate," Ms. Liv-
ingstone told an interviewer.
"It's easy to make things that ar-
ticulate space, but for me the
challenge is how you introduce
something else that has a dif-
ferent function, a different in-
tensity."
Ms. Livingstone, who was ini-
tially recognized as a fiber artist,
draws upon the resiliency of her
material and a structured sys-
tem of pleats.
Ms. Livingstone was part of
the first wave of feminists into
the art world during the late
1960s. Although her work
weaves together art and ac-
tivism, her work is not overtly
political. On the other hand, her
shapes imply a statement about
gender, fertility and sexuality.
Besides her work as a sculp-
tor and teacher, she collects nat-
ural objects — shells, curling
leaves, seed pods, skulls, gourds
and plants. Over the last decade,
as her reputation has grown, it's
her sculpture that's becoming
a collectible.
Recently, her work was
praised in a feature story in
American Craft magazine by
Dennis Adrian, a widely re-
spected art critic. Her art has
been shown internationally, in-
cluding at the International Bi-
ennial in Lausanne, Switzerland.
And, the National Endowment
for the Arts has awarded her
three fellowships in the last 15
years.
Born and raised in the sylvan
Pacific Northwest, Ms. Living-
stone deals primarily with hu-
man beings' relationship to
nature. Ultimately, her exhibit