Soft Concrete 2012

Kishio Suga made this artwork, *Soft Concrete*, by combining steel and concrete. I can almost see Suga in action, maybe on a dare, coaxing these very different materials into some kind of…relationship? The steel rectangles seem to emerge from the floor, rising out of a plinth of grey concrete. It's kind of oozing everywhere like fresh asphalt. The concrete looks fluid, as though it's still in the process of hardening. You know, concrete seems so solid, so fixed, but here Suga makes it look almost alive. I think of other artists like Robert Smithson, messing with the landscape, or even earlier with the Arte Povera movement in Italy. Artists have always played with what materials can do. In the end, Suga’s concrete isn’t really soft, but the gesture is, like he’s inviting us to reconsider what we think we know about weight, mass, and transformation.