Making sculpture is either an additive or a subtractive process.

The Florentine painter and sculptor Michelangelo used a subtractive process of removing material in order to arrive at a finished piece of sculpture. In his case, he carved out of a single block of marble, chiseling away pieces of stone and sanding and polishing until smooth.

In the additive process, the artist builds the work either adding clay or some other material or assembling.

In terms of viewing sculpture there are two ways, either frontally or in-the-round.

Relief sculpture is work that is meant to be seen from one side.

There are two kinds of relief, low and high, or bas or haut if you use the French terms.

Low relief doesnt bulge out past the picture plane and is flatter. But high or haut relief can bulge out quite a bit to become three dimensional.

All the designs and writing on ancient Egyptian tombs and temples are done in low relief.

Many ancient Greek reliefs were high, sculpted to be bulging out in three dimensions from the tops of temples above the supporting capitals in the area called a frieze (pronounced freeze).

Some sculptures are kinetic in that they move, such as Alexander Calders mobiles, while others are static such as statues.

In either case, many sculptures have fluid line and express motion in terms of shape and form no matter if they are carved in stone or cast in bronze or assembled in glued or nailed pieces of wood or welded pieces of metal.

Casting is another process that is partly subtractive but can also be additive but is also known as a replacement process in which wax is poured in first, then replaced with molten bronze. This process is sometimes called the lost wax process, or in French, cire-perdue, a process perfected by the ancient Greeks.

Casting uses a mold, an open cavity, in which some molten material is poured in to let harden. The mold is broken and the metal cast form is removed and the extraneous rough pieces are cut off and sanded.

Since bronze is a soft metal, individual pieces can be assembled together to make larger sculptures either by pounding individual pieces together with a hammer or welding them together with a blow torch.

Assemblage is an additive process whereby material such as wood or glass or metal or plastic or fiberglas or fabric or foliage is joined together to make small sculptures or sculptures quite large.

There are also larger works of sculpture that are so large that they require that the viewer walk in them or around them or through them, or view them from a high vantage point. Some of these are called earthworks and are always part of an outdoor specific installation either on public or private property.

Ancient Native American burial mounds are considered earthworks in that they may take the shape and form of a serpent or some other symbolic animal. But many contemporary artists create earthworks using the landscape as their canvas.

Even light can be sculpted. James Turrell is an artist who uses light to create illusory visual shape and form which is sometimes referred to as a Ganzfeld a German term for total field that expresses depth, surface color, brightness into a whole piece.

Performance art using the human body is also considered sculpture. Not to be confused with modern dance, although some of that can be part of a performance piece as can acting or role playing. In performance art or living sculpture, the viewer usually has to view the work over a period of time and so it is time-based.

Just walk through Times Square and you will see examples of this type of living sculpture with people dressed as the Statue of Liberty standing on a box perfectly still.

For this discussion forum, discuss how you would go about appreciating the sculpture that I attach below:

How would you approach it? Is it sculpture-in-the-round meant to be walked around and looked at from different perspectives?

What meaning do you take away from the work? Or is there no meaning?

What aesthetic pleasure do you get out of looking at it?

What don't you get?

Is there humor to be found in this work, or is all art serious?

If you didn't know the title of the work, what do you think the title should be, or does it matter? What title would you give it?

Below I attached two images of a contemporary sculpture titled "Fagends" by Claes Oldenburg installed at the new Whitney Museum.

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