The Ball No. 2 1971

Agustin Cardenas made "The Ball No. 2" out of marble, and right away, I'm thinking about the push and pull between the material and the form, the inside and the outside, the process and the outcome. The cool white marble feels so solid, but Cardenas has opened it up, creating this dialogue between weight and air, the defined and the suggestive. The shape has been carved into two distinct sections: a solid hemisphere, and two almost mountainous curves, side by side. Those subtle grey veining in the marble, look like contour lines, adding depth. The material becomes both the subject and the object. For me, it evokes a certain dreaminess like the surrealist sculptures of Jean Arp, and the smooth, almost erotic forms of Henry Moore. There's a tension between what is revealed and what remains hidden. Ultimately, I think Cardenas invites us to embrace this ambiguity, to find our own meanings within the stone's embrace.