Interview with Taos

Taos is a scupltor working with different types of metal and wood, large and small. He also makes and sells his own jewelry from sterling silver.

Taos: This was my final project for sculpture-II. It’s made from steel and enamel, and it was influenced by Robert Smithson and Richard Serra.

Me: Was it site-specific?

Taos: Yea, it’s heavy. I set up at the LAB. I was happy with this piece. It was helpful for me to really convey the ideas I was trying to convey about space and connections and the relationships that make up a whole. It’s about the single units that all combine together to create a cohesive piece in space.

Me: Why did you choose the blue color?

Taos: Because I had access to that material; there was a lot of that enamel paint.

Me: So do you work with found materials a lot?

Taos: Yea, you kinda have to. These materials are so expensive on their own. This is all salvaged steel.

Taos: This was an installation I did at LAB last year. I used the same concept of connections, points connecting and making up a whole. I did drawings beforehand. The theme of the project was tension. I anchored it to the celing, and then I drilled anchors to the floor. 

Taos: This is some of my metal working, made form steel.

Me: How do you bend the steel?

Taos: That stuff is pretty thin. It’s a sheet, pretty malleable, so I can actually bend it with my hands. I cut off the steel with a plasma cutter and then did a few different welds together, then just used force to put it together. It’s all cold fusion – no heat or soldering techniques. Its all bending and twisting. Again, it depends on the metal. Sterling is a pretty soft metal as opposed to something like steel.

Taos: This is some of my earlier work – a relief project. This is about sacred geometry. A lot of architecture is based off these ratios that also exist in nature. And that’s something I’m really fascinated with in my work. It’s a huge inspiration to me. I studied a lot of european renaissance architecture; there are a lot of cathedrals particularly built off this formula.

Me: Would you say that you try to create work that is representational, abstract?

Taos: Recently I’ve been moving towards more abstract ways of working. I initially had trouble with abstraction when I first started out with painting, but I learned how to deduce and learned more about abstraction, and that allowed me to go in the route I felt that my work needed to go.

Me: Do you always draw first?

Taos: No, I have different ways of working. Sometimes I’ll draw things out and I’ll do sketches. I’ll have a pretty cohesive idea of what I want to do. Other times, like with the blue metal piece, it’s more conceptual for me. I had an idea about these forms and this space I wanted to create, and I just worked and the piece kind of built itself. I worked in a different way than I’d ever worked before. And it was successful in my opinion.

Me: For me, sculpture seems like it’s more about the process than the end result. The process of working with the physical materials.What do you think?

Taos: Absolutely. I mean there are so may materials available. These are material objects; it’s not a painting on the wall. It’s something cohesive that you can touch, so I think proess is very important – being able to see process is important.

Taos: This is a wall relief, built out of a chair. The back of the chair is jutting out of the wall. It was representational of a landscape.

Me: I like the shadow it creates. Is lighting a big issue when it comes to your work?

Taos: I spent a lot of time lighting this piece, but that’s not the case with all my work. With indoor work yes. But I’ve been doing a lot of big projects outside. That’s what ive really been drawn to, which is a whole different animal.

Me: What kind of work do you think youre steering towards right now?

Taos: Right now the work that I want to be doing is related to formalism and some of those ideas about the deduction of a piece down to the pure essence of form and color. Nothing less and nothing more, and that’s just simple. It’s a way that Ive been recently drawn to as far as understanding abstraction.

Me: You mentioned Richard Serra as an influence. Other influences?

Taos: Robert smithson. Smith, however I disagree with some of his work.

Me: Beyond working with the space of an area, what would you say youre trying to say with your sculptures? Are you still exploring right now?

Taos: I’m absolutely still in exploration. I’m still learning a lot about my work, myself, and the ways in which I work. I think I want to go in the direction of processed-based work.

Me: Do you thnk you’d ever incorporate your jewerly-making into your sculptures?

Taos: Yea, I’ve tried to bridge the gap between my jewelerly and my sculpting career several times. My mentors are highly against it. They say that I’m too familiar with this medium. I know it well like that back of my hand, so it restricts some of my potential for creating better sculptures.

Me: I agree with that. I think these are really beautiful and wearable, but with your installation pieces you can go in so many different directions. Do you think sculpture offers you an outlet that another medium couldn’t, such as drawing?

Taos: Absolutely. The process, the building, the physical manifestation of an idea into a concrete piece is a very beautiful thing to me. It’s awesome to start with single idea and work through weeks or months, or however long it takes to exectute that idea. It’s very rewarding to have a substantial physical object to show for not only the time and effort but the original idea.