Berlin sand festival 2005 - sand sculpture

I arrived on this project in Berlin several days after the work was started so had no really input in the overall design. i just got stuck in and tried to add what I could.
On first seeing the sculpture I was very disappointed. It looked like a big cake with decorations on it's surface. There seemed to be some sort of design but it was apparent that all the carvers were just doing their own thing. At the point when I arrived they were around halfway down, (You always carve from the top down). The last wooden form was still to be removed and there were discussions going on about safety. On checking the sand and seeing how steep the sculpture was I added my voice to those saying that it would be crazy to risk taking off the only thing that would save the sculpture from nearly certain collapse and possible risk to those working on it.

I had been to this project the year before but the sand was very different then, much stronger and better compacted.Here is that sculpture. Now, I really didn't trust it. The fact that the carvers had left so much weight on the top parts of the sculpture didn't help. So it was decided that the wooden forms would be left in place and covered with sand. This may be seen as cheating but to have someone die as they were covered in an avalanche was not a price worth paying for being a purist.

What I added to the sculpture was this large ammonite because as the sculpture was worked down it seemed like the concept was different layers of time. I just took one free side and pulled it down as quick as I could not wanting to spend any more time than needed in the shadow of all that heavy dangerous sand above me. So my area was a roughly carved couple of fossils. It didn't stand out too much among all the other carving which to be honest wasn't great.

I really didn't like the sculpture or any of the work that was created that year in Berlin. There was a solo competition also running, where individual carvers got to make there own piece. At the end all the carvers could vote for the best. Anyone who was part of of the last US presidential elections will know how I felt about my voting. I had to just vote for the one I disliked the least.

Even with all the carvers working on the sculpture time ran out pretty fast and there were quick solutions around the bottom of the piece where large areas were just fattened and called finished. Really not a great project for carving quality. For me it was the most uninteresting one that I've seen. My small input wasn't great either but in a sea of badly crafted work I was glad it didn't stand out.

There was one, well two things of note at the project and they were these sponsored sculptures for Nissan. They were created by a few carvers including @stijgerart and Niall Magee. They did a nice job considering the sand and how difficult it is to copy car bodies. The mirrors were a bit of a cheat because they were made from Styrofoam and covered in sand. There unfortunately wouldn't have been a way to create them with just sand So to all you purists out there, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

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Ps

Thanks for reading. I use Steem to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, among other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.

Beauty is only skin deep -sand sculpture

Living statue - sand sculpture

The Royal Orange - sand sculpture

I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite