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Winter 2006
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman
By Todd Messelt
Photos by Tim Heitman
This past summer, artists from China, Egypt, Finland, Germany and Italy descended on a patch of grass near downtown St. Paul, Minn., joining six local stone carvers in transforming the space into a giant, open-air studio. The 14 carvers lived and worked together for five weeks in May and June, making sculptures from Minnesota stone for permanent installation in public locations throughout the host city.
More than 13,000 observers visited the temporary work site on the campus of Saint Paul College to witness the symposium, dubbed "Minnesota Rocks!" The project was initiated by Public Art Saint Paul (PASP), a private, non-profit group that promotes civic art in the state's capitol city.
Following in the tradition of the first international stone carving symposium organized by Austrian sculptor Karl Prantl in 1959, the symposium's lofty goals were to "promote international understanding through stone carving, educate the public, engage artists in shaping the city, and create artworks for public spaces," explained PASP President, Christine Podas-Larson. The event also served as a valuable educational and public relations tool for Minnesota's stone quarrying and fabrication industries, along with their allied trades and professions.
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman
"By highlighting the beauty of Minnesota's stone and drawing together quarries, suppliers and other industry vendors, we hoped to generate greater awareness of its qualities and uses," said Steve Hedberg, CEO of the event's primary sponsor, Twin Cities-based Hedberg Landscape and Masonry Supplies. "We heard all kinds of people saying things like 'that stone is gorgeous!', and heightened awareness means increased demand for stone."
It's doubtful the magnitude of the event could have been achieved without such strong support from the local stone industry. For example, many of the state's quarries supplied and delivered free blocks of stone, in addition to making considerable cash contributions. Other in-kind contributions included everything from tools provided by Granite City Tool of St. Cloud, Minn., to free housing donated by Macalester College in St. Paul.
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman
The St. Paul-based 3M Corporation even funded a Minnesota Rocks! curriculum, complete with lesson plans, study guides and "curriculum trunks" filled with books, stone samples, geological maps and other relevant earth science materials. The curriculum was introduced in 30 Minnesota K-12 schools and will be used well into the next decade.
Clean Slate
Participating artists were asked to arrive at the symposium without any ideas regarding subject matter or medium. Rather, they were asked to seek creative inspiration and to choose their block of stone during the event. Here's a sampling of what the symposium yielded:
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman
Artist:
Lourdes Cue
Residence:
Minneapolis, Minn., and Mexico City, Mexico
Sculpture:
"Water of Stone"
Medium:
Mesabi Black Granite
Quarry:
Cold Spring Granite
The paradoxical supposition posed by the title of Lourdes Cue's sculpture may challenge the reader's imagination, but the inspiration behind "Water of Stone" is rooted in real experience, the artist explained.
"I'm interested in creations that arise out of specific geographies that surround my experience as an artist," Cue said. "For the last 20 years, I've been having an organic conversation with the Minnesota landscape, and my intention is always to find the voice that is already within the landscape. Water of Stone is a product of this conversation, and it's inspired by the idea that the earth has memory."
The seven-foot-long sculpture offers the semblance of a small boat or vessel topped with a smooth, concave bowl designed to hold water. The short, jagged, intersecting lines of the work's outer surface are meant to recall the motion and sensation of splashing water.
Since she needed a medium that could hold water, her choice of stone ruled out many of the varieties made available to artists at the symposium. "To be honest, I hardly work with sedimentary stone," she said. "I like the challenge of a real, alive and stubborn dialogue with igneous stone."
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman
So she chose Black Mesabi granite — which is actually a type of gabbro — because of its hardness, texture and extremely low porosity. A Cold Spring Granite exclusive, the medium-grained gabbro is grey to black in tone, and is commonly used for interior and exterior building applications, as well as for paving blocks and monuments.
"International events like Minnesota Rocks! are always a great learning experience," Cue said. "It was quite a challenge to be the only woman artist in the symposium, and sometimes it was hard to navigate through a space of pure testosterone. But it was also quite an honor to be part of a wonderful stone adventure."
Artist:
Salah Hammad
Residence:
October City, Geza, Egypt
Sculpture:
"Family Hug"
Medium:
Dolomitic Limestone
Quarry:
Vetter Stone Inc.
As an internationally acclaimed sculptor, Salah Hammad's commissions have led him across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. With his visit to Minnesota, Hammad was able to add a U.S. city to his list of permanent installations.
In addition to representing Egypt in the 51st Venice Biennale last year, Hammad's accomplishments include the Italian Ministry of Culture's Creative Arts Award in 1993 and the Egyptian government's 2000 Courage Award. Minnesota Rocks! was the 15th international sculpture symposium to which Hammad has contributed.
His sculpture for the event — an abstract piece titled "Family Hug" — is composed of three, simple geometric shapes. These shapes, together with the sculpture's uncomplicated detailing, are meant to recall the energy of "a family when they are meeting after a long time or when a mother hugs her sons," Hammad said.
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman
The sculpture was carved from blocks of "Glacier Buff" dolomitic limestone from Vetter Stone Inc., which owns quarries in Minnesota and Alabama. For more than 100 years, the third-generation, family-owned quarrying and fabricating company has been mining dolomitic limestone in the Mankato-Kasota stone district, a 12-mile corridor that lines the Minnesota River Valley between the cities of Mankato and St. Peter in southern Minnesota.
The light gold Glacier Buff is Vetter's most popular variety of dimension stone, according to Chris Wedholm, the company's director of sales. "It's a type-2, medium-density limestone that is more consistent and has less extremes. We provided a clear block with color that is consistent from bottom to top."
Hammad, who has worked with similar varieties of limestone from Egypt, says the Vetter block was an "easy stone to work with. It's very soft and is a good looking stone for monumental sculpture."
Artist:
Sakari Peltola
Residence:
Littoinen, Finland
Sculpture:
"Weatherman"
Medium:
Dolomitic Limestone
Quarry:
Mankato Kasota Stone, Inc.
The St. Paul suburb of St. Anthony Village, Minn., sponsored Sakari Peltola's participation in honor of its "sister city" relationship with Salo, Finland. Peltola's sculpture, titled "Weatherman," was installed in the city's newly developed Salo Park this past September.
Peltola has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout Finland. His larger sculptures have been installed in a plethora of outdoor sites, ranging from civic plazas to forests and even a landfill. Altogether, he has participated in six international stone carving symposiums, including four in Finland and one in Taegu, South Korea, which began immediately following Minnesota Rocks!
"Weatherman" is comprised of three individual shapes: a cloud, a human figure and a suitcase. The components were carved from blocks of dolomitic limestone, some of which were provided by Mankato Kasota Stone.
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman
Founded by Irish-born stonemason T.R. Coughlin in 1886, the fourth-generation, family-owned quarrying and fabrication business is a division of the Mankato, Minnesota-based Coughlin Companies.
Although Peltola has worked in a variety of media, the bulk of his recent work has been in granite, "so the [dolomitic] limestone was really soft and relaxing to work with," he explained.
"Together, the individual objects form a rhythm from big to small," Peltola continued. "Also, the location of the sculptures near a pond on the north side of Salo Park has a special role. The cloud is on top of a hill, and the figure with his suitcase is situated lower next to a walking path. So there are both vertical and horizontal levels, and people can experience the sculpture either closely or from a distance."
Artist:
Michael Sinesio
Residence:
Ely, Minn.
Sculpture:
"Constructing Friendship"
Medium:
Mary Ellen Jasper
Quarry:
Cliff's Natural Stone
Michael Sinesio, a self-taught carver and full-time artist, was one of six Minnesota carvers who took part in the symposium. He lives in the small town of Ely, located in the heart of Minnesota's "Iron Range," where taconite mining had sustained the local economy for much of the 20th century.
In addition to woodcarving and making sculptures out of snow, Sinesio likes to work with stone that is local to his northern Minnesota region — one of the reasons why he chose Mary Ellen jasper for his sculpture.
Explained Sinesio, "I chose [Mary Ellen jasper] because it was a stone that comes from where I live and also because [Granite City Tool] was providing tools I wanted to try and put to the test."
Large chunks of the oxidized jasper stone were cut and set aside decades ago while taconite miners burrowed into deeper iron formations. "It's hard to cut," said Brad Gerlach, vice president of Cliff's Natural Stone. "But you get all that hard work back in its beauty because it takes on a great polish.
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman
"It has fossilized algae stromatolytes, ranging in color from red to green and black," Gerlach continued. "It's milky and very smooth and has an agate look to it." Although the exotic stone hasn't been used much outside of landscaping and the specialty mineral market, Gerlach says his company is preparing to market it for counter and tabletops.
To carve the stone, Sinesio made generous use of a variable-speed angle grinder with diamond-impregnated circular blades and a variable-speed die grinder with diamond-impregnated burrs and cones.
"I also made my own tools on-site using the same equipment," Sinesio explained. "I reshaped carbide chisels to points and retooled them to fit a European pneumatic gun, and also made several split bits to fit the die grinder so I could use strips of felt and buckskin leather to hold my buffing compound for polishing."
Sinesio's sculpture features the faces of each of the symposium's artists and other key participants, appearing in various places throughout the boulder's original dimensions. "I was watching one of the artists who was using a chisel and hitting it with a hammer. I decided to carve the likeness of his hand as a start, and the idea began to develop."
Artist:
Lei Yixin
Residence:
Changsha, Hunan Province, China
Sculpture:
"Meditation"
Medium:
Winona Dolomite Limestone
Quarry:
Biesanz Stone
As one of China's preeminent sculptors, Lei Yixin is used to working with a team. At home, he gets paid to deliver a concept while directing other workers to do most of the actual carving. "This is the first time I've ever carved by myself," Yixin explained.
The symposium also offered Yixin a departure from his government-commissioned subjects, which often include commemorative themes and subjects, including national heroes, geographic regions or political figures.
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman
Rather, Yixin's Minnesota Rocks! sculpture portrays the head of a tranquil, goddess-like personification with long, flowing hair. Titled "Meditation," the work will be installed in a pastoral setting near a pond in St. Paul's Phalen Park.
The sculpture was carved from Winona Dolomite limestone from Biesanz Stone of Winona, Minn. Quarried within the Southeastern Minnesota bluffs that line the Mississippi River Valley, the magnesium-rich, sedimentary limestone is geologically classified as Oneota Dolomite.
Just like the dolomite quarried in the nearby Mankato-Kasota stone district, the limestone's strength (ASTM Category III) and low porosity make it well-suzited for both interior and exterior building applications.
"Winona limestone is technically a marble, per the guidelines of the Marble Institute of America," explained company president Chuck Biesanz, whose great grandfather Philip Biesanz began mining the stone around 1875. "And because it is truly a marble, it takes a beautiful polish."
Like most of the carvers at the symposium, Yixin noted that the stone's relative softness renders it easy to work with. "I've never worked with this particular kind of stone, but I have worked with similar stones in China."
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman
Todd Messelt is freelance writer and journalist based in Minneapolis.
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