The Same Language, On The Thinking Of Contemporary Sculpture Materials

The sculpture materials used by prehistoric peoples included wood, stone, clay, animal bones, leather etc. Later, metals such as gold and copper that are easily extracted from the natural environment started to be used for sculpture. Various materials including plastics and alloy metal have been put into use in modern sculpture according to their respective characteristics and suitable usages.Sculpture materials could be divided into two categories: natural materials that are solid such as wood and stone; and artificial materials such as metals, ceramics, and plastics that may be manipulated to create forms (i.e. materials with the physical quality of plasticity" ).20 years have passed since I graduated from the University of fine arts. The materials of all my sculpture-works were artificial materials with plastic qualities. It was not because I wanted to avoid the use of natural materials; but simply because those artificial materials were easily accessible in my environment . Furthermore these materials had the advantage that they could be altered to improve their workability, durably and other factors.Therefore, the focus of study in this article is the artificial materials ( with physical plastic qualities ) , which I used before.The basic elements of each material such as ceramics, metals and other plasticity materials are fundamentally different from each other, Therefore this necessitates further examination of the characteristics of each of the materials in order to determine qualities common to all of the materials.The fist part of the study involves an examination of the basic chemical structure and characteristics of the focus materials. The second part of the study involves the determination of chemical (i. e. chemical structural) characteristics common to all of the materials in the study.Ceramic glazes may be the best example of a material, which may be manipulated to exhibit some chemical characteristics shared by the other materials in the study. The act of creation and "interaction" between the artist and materials must be other than a language based communication. So the rationality of making is not language based but inherent to the interaction between the artist and materials.Whilst the sculpture may appear silent and inert, the qualities inherent to its materials and method of creation may invoke an understanding within the viewer that both arouses and transcends the five senses.