Project for a Monument 1977

Pablo Palazuelo made this "Project for a Monument" out of steel sometime in the twentieth century. I think of this piece as a thought in iron. The artist had to be so intentional and precise when working with the metal, as if engineering a feat of gravity and balance. I imagine Palazuelo in the workshop, sparks flying and the smell of hot metal filling the air. I see his hands carefully welding the pieces together, a slow building up from the base. The sculpture emerges from the metal like a plant from the earth: two stems reaching skyward, a platform for unknown happenings, and a grounding root. Palazuelo was into geometric abstraction; he was after the hidden structures of space and form. There is an architectural quality to this piece, almost like a model for some futuristic building. Yet there is also an organic feel to it, with its stem-like forms and earthy, rusted surface. It reminds me a little bit of some of Julio González's iron works.