48 | JUNE 23 • 2022
RF: Your piece outside the
Frankfurt museum is in a
city where Jews are less than
1% of the population, much
like Grand Rapids. Most
who visit Meijer Gardens
and see your piece will not
be Jewish. What do you hope
they take away from the
encounter?
AS: I hope they will see a
work of art by the grandchild
of a survivor and perhaps
through accompanying text
will see how that person
experienced and translated
the stories of his family and
of his community. Of how he
created his art and lived his
life with those memories and
with those stories. For me,
it’s a very personal process
and maybe they can read it
through me. I cannot teach
them or say “this is how it
happened” because I was not
there, and they weren’t, but I
hope the sculpture will open
a sort of dialogue to enrich
their knowledge and their
opinions.
RF: The title Ways to Say
Goodbye raises all sorts of
questions about the idea
of saying goodbye to the
past. Mourning is not about
being focused strictly on
the past, but on being able
to move beyond it; not to
forget, but not to be trapped
by it. In that respect, a tree,
though wounded in the
past, promises growth in the
future.
AS: Just like the
stolpersteine, we are offering
an idea, a way of thought.
I think it is much more
effective to offer it rather than
to point it out. I feel there are
so many references within the
piece: what trees represent
in Judaism, the shattered
glass of Kristallnacht, those
memories, the title, who I am
as an artist, the story of the
Pestka family who sponsored
the work. There are so many
elements I hope will create a
space for discussion.
RF: The Meijer Gardens
site also brings the
advantage of the four
seasons. How did you use
the site?
AS: We tried to define that
space using a concrete path,
but the hilltop still encloses
the piece, allowing it to blend
in. While the plaza provides a
place to sit down, to hang out,
so you are close to it, under
it, you are also away from it at
the same time. I think it’s true
the tree will live there among
nature more than if it had
been situated on cement, as in
Frankfurt.
RF: Tell us more about the
sculpture.
AS: The piece weighs 2
to 3 tons, but that’s because
of the inside structure of
the stainless steel, a very
massive pipe. The aluminum
itself is very light. And the
glass weighs a lot as well.
Structurally, aluminum
cannot bear much weight, so
they have to use proper steel
piping for which they know
the strength exactly, because
the aluminum enclosure has
no structural properties.
RF: Are sculptors also
engineers?
AS: These days an
artist just outsources that
work. There are very good
fabricators, but, of course,
you need to know what
you ask of them and how
to ask it. Sometimes what
I’m interested in is maybe
extending the possibilities,
stretching what’s possible.
Often it’s those companies
that take drawings from
artists to build the piece.
Today the artist’s life can
be more one of directing,
but I am really interested
in the construction of
things. For a lot of my more
complicated works, I start
by doing prototypes to try
to see if they work, and then
maybe outsourcing them to
a fabricator. In this case, we
did a lot of testing with a
combination of aluminum
and glass so that it felt right
with the material and how it
is held together.
Prepping the
sculpture for
installation
An empty space
memorial
ROB FRANCIOSI
DVIR GALLERY
continued from page 47
ARTS&LIFE
SCULPTURE