stonexus THE PERIODICAL PUBLICATION MAGAZINE OF THE STONE FOUNDATION NUMBER XIII EDITOR / CURATOR, GRAPHIC DESIGN Tomas Lipps GRAPHIC PRODUCTION above: paving detail of triangular ‘stonender’ on Julie Kandyba IN THIS ISSUE: pages 36-37, John Shaw-Rimmington & Sean Adcock Printed and published in the USA PHOTOS TO THE EDITOR FEATURES by STONEXUS PRODUCTIONS LLC BONGUENSA TEMPLE . 3 BUILDING BELL ROCK LIGHTHOUSE 116 Lovato Lane, Santa Fe NM USA 87505 Photos by Charles Junkerman by Doug Bell . .9 www.stonefoundation.org email: [email protected] TEKTONIKA PHOTO GALLERY: A STONEXCURSION with friends JORGE YAZPIK, Sculptor . 13 in RHODE ISLAND and MASSACHUSETTS by Tomas Lipps . 22 FRONT COVER: STONEXCERPT . 68 FOLLOWING THE OLD STONE ROAD: EIRE UNTITLED, 2012, by Jorge Yazpik from STORIES IN STONE Stonework of Ireland Part II. 49 volcanic rock, 1.45 x 1.21 x .92 meters by David B. Williams by Tomas Lipps (4.76’ x 4’ x 3’) photo: Eduardo Landa THE STORIED STONES OF below: SANTA MARIA DE OVILA Cormac’s Chapel, Rock of Cashel, Part I by Robert M. Clements . 38 exterior view of the apse and square towers Part II by Edwin Hamilton . 42 over the transept arms, Co Tipperary, Ireland Part III by Pierre de Montaulieu. 46 photo: Chris06 via CreativeCommons SOURCES/MISCELLANEOUS NOTES . .72 below: Horse and Rider, Michael Quane, 2001 above: ceremonial mace head, flint, 7.9 cm tall (3.1 in) Found in the Neolithic passage tomb at Knowth, Co. Meath, Ireland—dated to 3300-2800 BC (!) photo: National Museum of Ireland, Dublin stone (ston) n. nex-us (nek’ sas) n., pl. nexi or nex-us-es. 1. a. Concreted earthy or mineral matter; rock. 1. A means of connection; a link or tie. b. Such concreted matter of a particular type. 2. A connected series or group. Often used in combination. 3. The core or center. 2. A small piece of rock. 3. Rock or piece of rock shaped or finished mag-a-zine (mag-úh-zeen), n. for a particular purpose, especially a piece 1. A periodical containing a collection of of rock that is used in construction. articles, stories, pictures, or other features stonexus XIII 1 TWO OF FIVE PAGES bonguensa Photos by Charles Junkerman Bongeunsa Temple was founded in 794 about a Buddhism was transformed as it traveled from India through kilometer from its present location on the slope of Sudo mountain in China to Korea and then to the Japanese archipelago (later Japanese Samsung-dong at the southern edge of metropolitan Seoul. Buddhists established direct connections with China). Buddhism was introduced into Korea in the 4th century, “The oldest Japanese Buddhist temple, Asuka-dera, construct- ‘blended’ with the indigenous Shamanism and nature worship, ed by craftsmen from the ancient Korean kingdom of Baekje in 588, evolved with Chinese and Indian influences, and flourished until the was modeled upon the layout and architecture of Baekje.” * establishment of the Chosun Dynasty in 1392. During the five cen- Thus it should not surprise us that the stonework in these pho- tury Chosun hegemony over the Korean peninsula, Confucianism tos expresses the character and skill that we have come to associate became the sole state religion and Buddhism was suppressed but with Japanese stonework. Whole villages of stonemasons (and other continued to evolve. artisans, notably potters) settled in (or were relocated to) Japan—the Bongeunsa was reconstructed in 1498. From 1551 through Anoh-shu people, for instance, brought their stone-working skills from 1936 (when it was largely destroyed by fire) it was the main temple Korea, settled near Kyoto, and their descendants were involved in the of the Korean Seon (Zen) sect of Buddhism. The temple suffered building of Azuchi-jo** (jo- castle) which was to serve as the proto- more destruction during the Korean War. type for castles subsequently built during Japan’s medieval period. o The Korean Peninsula was Japan’s land bridge to continental T L Asia and Korean culture has had a deep and lasting influence on Japanese culture. This is most remarkable in the fields of architec- *Kakichi Suzuki. Early Buddhist Architecture in Japan. Kodansha International (1980) ture, ceramics, painting, statuary. .and stonework. ** (see Stonexus #XI, pp 52-55) stonexus XIII 3 stonexus XIII 5 THREE OF EIGHT PAGES YAZPIK work-in-progress photo: T L stonexus XIII 13 Each finished piece is a creature, but a nameless creature. Yazpik believes applying a title would condition a viewer’s response. left: UNTITLED, 2004, volcanic stone, 6.6’ x .2.4’ x .2.6’ and UNTITLED, 2007, volcanic stone and wood, (tzalam) 7.5’ above: UNTITLED, 2009, obsidian, 1.6’ x 2.4’ x 1.7’ right: UNTITLED, 2012, volcanic stone, 4’ x 3.5’ x 3’ photo: T L below: Jorge Yazpik, 2014 photo: T L 19 photos: T L stonexus XIII 21 ONE OF TWO PAGES StonExcerpt David B. Williams, self-described ‘Geologist/Writer’ has a keen interest in stone types that have, due to their geological qualities, proved attractive to man-the-builder and for that reason became intimately involved in our cultural history. In STORIES IN STONE he profiles such building stones as New York Brownstone, Boston Granite, Carmel Granite, Minnesota Gneiss, Florida Coquina, Indiana Limestone, Colorado Petrified Wood, Carrara Marble, East Coast Slate and Italian Travertine. We are made aware of formative processes that have endowed these lithic entities with their peculiar character and the way in which they have been articulated, particularly in the urban environment. from Chapter 8: the trouble with MICHELANGELO’S FAVORITE STONE (The references to Amaco here relate to the description, earlier in the chapter, of the problems caused by the fateful decision on the part of Amaco’s chairman and the architect (Edward Durrell Stone) to use six thousand tons of noble Carrara marble to clad their corporate headquarters in Chicago.) If you want someone to blame for Amoco’s marble problems, you What unites his work, particularly the Pieta, David, and later have to look no further than Michelangelo. Whether in sculpting or Moses, is that Michelangelo had transcended his medium. He had architecture, he exploited the brilliance and luminosity of marble as become an alchemist, turning stone into living beings. When you few have ever done. His work gave marble, particularly Carrara marble, look at any of these great statues, it is hard not to think that you are the prestige that made it the material to use in corporate boardrooms, looking at works carved of flesh and cloth. Every fold, every muscle, prestigious law firms, and rarefied social clubs. Marble good enough every feature is so realistic that you expect David or Moses or Mary for Michelangelo had to be good enough for Standard Oil. to become animate and to tell of the great thoughts revealed in their Michelangelo first became attracted to stone at a young age, or faces. It feels as if they are present. so he told his biographer Vasari. “Giorgio, if I have any intelligence By finding the essential elements of humanity and transmitting at all, it has come from being born in the pure air of your native them to stone, Michelangelo had in turn bestowed a sense of grace Arezzo, and also because I took the hammer and chisels with which on marble. No one who has seen the David or the Pieta could I care my figures from my wet-nurse’s milk. Like so many others, every look at the material again and not be reminded of refinement, his first experiences were hammering his local rock. Born in 1476 of the ethereal spirit of humanity. And those qualities eventually in Caprese, about fifty miles from Florence, Michelangelo spent his became synonymous with the stone, whether the viewer had seen early years in the quarrying village of Settignano, where the stone Michelangelo’s work or not. carvers, or scarpellini, worked a blue gray sandstone known as Everything about David is awe inspiring—his size, his location in pietra serena. the Galleria dell’ Accademia in Florence, the feeling of reverence in Suckled on stone or not, Michelangelo did not start as a the air around him—yet only a few yards away is the Gallery of the sculptor. His father apprenticed the youngster to the great fresco Slaves, with its roughed-out statues. The figure in each appears to painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. Michelangelo soon surpassed his be wrenching himself out of his marble bounds. In all five you can master, who recommended his protégé to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the see the process of how Michelangelo chiseled a man out of rock, head of Florence’s ruling family. It was in Lorenzo’s garden that of how he missed precise and rough cuts, of how he revealed the Michelangelo discovered marble, at the age of fifteen or sixteen. textures and light within the stone. Lorenzo was a renowned patron of the arts, with a rich collection These pieces are not made of flesh. You know Michelangelo of Greek and Roman sculptures, plus a resident sculptor, Bertoldo di was working with rock. They are not sensuous. They have a density Giovanni, a student of Donatello, the greatest sculptor of the early and a mass. They are grounded. to middle 1400s. Michelangelo described his process of sculpting as the “art which Again Michelangelo’s precocious ability aided his development. operates by taking away.” Other sculptors have written of releasing Vasari described how the young artist so impressed Lorenzo with the spirit or story within the stone. I do not have the experience his first effort in sculpting—a copy of a faun—that Lorenzo invited or knowledge to question artists’ beliefs, but the unfinished blocks Michelangelo to move into his house, gave him fine clothes, and illustrate a profound link between man and stone, a link where a allowed him to sit at the family dining table.