Working solo is my favourite kind of sand sculpture. Not having to ask anyone else's permission to do something or have to try and explain my sometimes mad ideas to a fellow carve can be the most freeing way to be creative. Just stick on my headphone and away I go. But, sometimes it is nice to work with someone else. Someone who will push the idea to higher heights than I can do alone, someone to take some of the stress off as we try and finish the piece on time and of course someone to chat to during the long workday. This, I am sorry to say was not one of those times.
Back to Korea
I had been asked to team up with Kirsten Hendersen from Denmark on this piece we made in Donghae City, South Korea. I really jumped at the chance as I could not wait to return to what had become my favourite country to visit. Kirsten is a wonderful person and good friend that exudes calmness. What a better teammate to have, or so I thought.
Wonderful and all that she is, she really can't carve very well but that was OK, I thought. I am sure we could pull something together. I think the theme was free so we could make anything and to be honest, I think that is where the problems began. Kirsten and I just couldn't decide on what to make before we began. For me, working alone that is my modus operandi but as a team that doesn't swing too well.
Finally, we decided that it was time to just start something so we got to work.
Balls
I had invented this new technique to make the perfect ball using just a measuring tape and a piece of string so as we still discussed our ideas on what we were making we began with that, as big as we could at the top of the pile of sand.
I will do a post someday to show you how the ball is made, to do it now would sidetrack this post even further.
There was no I in team
As we worked our way down I started to observe that Kirsten had lots of ideas but no ideas at the same time and each time I made a suggestion it was shot down with very strong conviction. So any idea she had I would just settle on that and try my best to make it so. Another thing I observed is that she really could not realise any of her own ideas, instead, she would faff around with an area of sand for a day and nothing would appear. This would lead me to have to finish whatever she had started and still try and keep the style that she was exhibiting. For me, the whole thing was very frustrating. A sand sculpture needs to be carved down at an equal rate on all sides so that you can remove the next wooden form to continue working on down and so as well as doing what I was trying to do I had to go around to where she worked and help her get a move on.
I started to see a pattern forming that the only reason I was asked to team up by her was to be the actual sculptor while she would be the director.
No matter what I did it was wrong but she had neither the skill nor the vision to put it right. I could feel the looks of the other carvers. They could see what was going on and how far we were lagging behind, they could also see that yours truly was not happy or performing to his fullest. Finally, as we were running out of time so, I had to make a decision and just go for it, ignoring my teammate and would just carve. It didn't matter if it was right or wrong in Kirsten's eyes, I would just get shit done.
Let's put this sculpture to bed
I don't think I ever carved as much as I carved on that last day. There was still around 1 meter of sand to be carved running around the entire sculpture. Kirsten was still working on the above figure at one side of the sculpture and so I started on the left-hand side and finished everything all the way around till I came back to her still faffing about on the same little figure. I was then forced to jump in and help her finish that too.
Done!
That is my main take away from this sculpture, I feel nothing else and don't even know what the whole thing was about. Probably some sort of wormhole through space kind of thingy. I did like the ball with the constellations and the crowd of characters walking out of the distance but apart from that, it leaves me cold.
Brutally honest, honest
I don't want this post to come off too mean to Kirsten, as I said she is a great person and I have known her for many years as a good friend but as a team player she did my head in. I could just not write about the bad side of my experience working with her but as I continue documenting each of my sculptures I think it is important, to be honest, and document, not just the sculpture but the conditions in which they were made. Self-censorship is insidious.
Although I was very frustrated with the work I had another lovely time in Korea. The people are wonderful and friendly and we were treated very well by the mayor and hosts from the city. Kirsten is still a great friend and very creative in her own way but you need more than that if you want to be in a team.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Painted ships - sand sculpture
Irish Isles - sand sculpture
Love is blind: are you? - ice sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite
If you would like to support me
Bitcoin: bc1qp4lfg0ttz66nesgff8fd5unglg9y0l2jy53j36
Ethereum: 0x6abaE039b9BDFB67495A0588cb90F9EAF5f7556c
Eos: ammonitearts