"Bergen Rocks 09" July 18

Go to Bergen Rocks post below for map and times

Atti2ude Club member Alejo Lozano from Columbia helps to prepare the site and place the stones. This is Carlos stone, a lot larger than it looks, about 6 tonnes.

Finally everyone is here, (left to right) Chander, Chien, Carlos, Gerard, Paul and Mark Stuthiet. Mark is an Alberta sculptor who I worked with on the Canadian team at "Fete d'hiver" a few years back. The sculptors came in over 5 days, we made a trip to Calgary on Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues and Wed to get them all. Each one started on his stone the day after getting here. I had plans for the days leading up to the start so things are a little behind on the site but I think it will all be pulled together by the opening ceremony on Saturday.

Carlos thinks the weather in Alberta is perfect for sculpting, well in the summer it often is. We have encountered some issues with Carlos stone, something that happens at symposiums and creates a need to adapt, be creative and flexible. If it was a commission you would simply get another stone, at a symposium that isn't usually nessecary except in the case of catastrophic material failure. It is fun and interesting, and challenging to create a pleasing form from "your stone" Chander wrote to me a few days before he left India to send him a picture of his, he said "I miss my stone" There is a kind of bond that grows between the sculptor and the material, stone, wood and snow often have internal defects that make it nessecary to modify your work. This is exciting, it is as if the material is dictating the final form, that you are working together with it. Often it leads to something interesting that you did not think of doing.

After cleaving a large piece from the top of his stone (wedges are inserted into the drill holes and tightened until the stone "cleaves") Chien is cutting "frets" to be chiseled off . Due to the wedge shape of the piece to be removed the smaller end didn't come off with the bulk of the cleaved block.

Paul is grinding a connecting line between the drill holes to be sure that when he cleaves the stone the cut will be as straight as possible.

Gerard always looks a little whiter at the end of the day, seems like the guy lives on that marble dust.

As this is a small symposium we don't have extra helpers on hand to help out the guys all of the time. Here Chien and Carlos work together with the big saw. This really creates a bond between the sculptors, having contributed a little to everyones work is satisfying and creates memories that will last forever for us.


Chander is cuts the form of one of the bells for his project with the angle grinder. He is working on several elements of his sculpture at the same time.....two columns, a header and two bells.

Stephen Turner, Atti2ude Club volunteer, helps Chander with cleaving the block he will use for the two columns. Each piece weighs approximately 6000 lb.


Chiens model sits near his work area, sculptors refer to a model or sketch regularly to avoid making a cut where it is not wanted (oooops).

After making cuts with the big saw many chisels are inseted and tightened progressively tow "cleave" off large pieces.

On the 20th we stopped in the afternoon and raised the flags. Everyone helped with each one, this is the Viet Nam flag going up, Chien in front in a classic Vietnamese pose. After the flags went up the participants each sang their national anthem. The site looks great with the flags of five countries flying over our work.

Tues July 21

We went into Calgary on our first Tuesday off. There is a nice group of sandstone sculptures along the bank of the Bow near the Greyhound station. They are really hard to park and get to, you have to cross a couple of streets where there aren't any crosswalks....The 14 street bridge is in the background.
Our trip had two purposes, to tool up and see some art around the city. This sculpture of Nelly McClung and other women from the womens rights movement is along Stephen Ave Mall.

The last stop was the Calgary tower. Too bad it was cloudy, we couldn't see the mountains but it was a great view of the city. We spent about 1/2 hour up there, Carlos didn't trust the glass floor.

Rhonda Barber took time to give us a great tour of the Triange Gallery at City Hall. Part of an kinetic installation by sculptor Katie Ohe is shown in front of us.

July 22

Everyone got a lot of work done today, including me. I was so busy I forgot about taking pictures until Paul had decided to shut down and clean up for tommorrow. The pressure washer does a quick job of that.

Carlos has taken a lot of material from back of his sculpture today and on Monday, now the form is begining to show. He has a long way to go and the stone is very hard but we are only slightly over a week into it now. Incredible what can result over only a month, I hope more people get out to see these art works develop.

Now that the top surface is roughed in Chien is working on the sides. He made a saw cut and cleaved the top half off and now he's drilling and will cleave off the bottom. This process will be repeated on the other side, you can just barely see the sawcut on the other side.
We had to move one of the stones Chander cleaved off on Monday to let him work between the two. Improvisation is nessecary when you don't have exactly what is needed for equipment. First we lifted the stone and put rollers under it. Then we placed a chive under the front of the crane and ran a chain through that to the hook. By pulling up witht he crane we could pull the stone forward.

The form of "Desire to be" is developing very fast. The cuts that Gerard makes are getting smaller and smaller now as he is working toward surfaces he will detail or polish.