Challenge VI -- Roots: Insights & Inspirations in Contemporary Turned Objects

Exhibition Catalogue

The Challenge VI - Roots: Insights & Inspirations in Contemporary Turned Objects exhibition represents the Wood Turning Center's continued commitment to furthering lathe artists' growth and public awareness of the lathe turning field. The Challenge series evolved from encouraging artists to seek new personal areas of exploration and presenting it in gallery settings to putting the call out for entries and inviting curators, critics, and scholars to select the work and write essays on lathe art.

Challenge VI is excititng because we asked the artists to explain what inspired them to do the work that they submitted for the exhibition. Anything could be a source of inspiration, but they had to figure out how to convey it in a tangible form. Exciting hand drawings, photographs, magazine articles, and even a CD of a piano composition came in with slides of their work. We present the work and inspirations of fifty artists from ten countries around the globe.

This book captures the inspirations before and during the physical work, a way of recording the spirit within the objects. We read about the muse, we wonder over the work, and we understand how it fits into evolving contexts. This is the reader's challenge: to contemplate the artists' thoughts and resulting works. Enjoy!

-Albert LeCoff, Executive Director