Stein für Friedrich Cerha 1987

Karl Prantl made this stone sculpture for Friedrich Cerha with stone. You can see how Prantl approaches the stone not as something to be shaped into a perfect form, but more as a collaborator, almost like a dance. The vertical cuts transform the surface into this crazy landscape of ridges and valleys. The texture of the stone becomes super important, almost as important as the form itself. The way the light catches on those edges must be mesmerizing. It makes me think about geological processes, and how the earth itself carves away at stone over millennia. Each mark contains both intention, and accident, so the object becomes a record of a lived process. Thinking about other artists who work with stone, maybe someone like Richard Long? Both Long and Prantl bring a real sensitivity to the material. It is not about control, but about a conversation between the artist and the stuff of the earth.