Widening Circles

Photography by Regina Arriola; Nathan Valentine on December 25th, 2012 in Art Basel 2012, Arts

Lauren Scott Miller & Emily Noelle Lambert

Miami, FL – December 6, 2012 – New York-based artist Emily Noelle Lambert has mastered transforming reclaimed materials to create fantastically innovative sculptures. Her latest piece entitled “Widening Circles,” and inspired by a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, brought new meaning to Lambert’s already imaginative artistic approach. The challenge? With UNTITLED Miami Beach just two days away, the participating artist was notified that the base of her showpiece—the majority of it—had not and would not be making it Miami. With a decision to jump ship or carry on, the resourceful artist and gallerist Lauren Scott Miller recruited the help of local fisherman and extended friends to recreate the piece altogether. And the result was extraordinary.

“Widening Circles” by Rainer Maria Rilke

I live my life in widening circles

That reach out across the world

I may not complete this last one

But I give myself to it

I circle around God, around the primordial tower

I’ve been circling for thousands of years and I still don’t know

Am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?

Interview with Emily Noelle Lambert & Lauren Scott Miller

Q: This piece was both made from and shown in Miami. Tell us the story.

LSM: The main core of the structure did not make it to Miami. They always say that artists are problem solvers, and Emily was certainly forced to put that to the test and embrace the situation at hand. I activated a network that I didn’t even know I had in Miami and it really wasn’t my personal network. Local artists opened up their studios to us and people opened their homes to us.

Q: How close did you come to not completing it?

ENL: The show opened on Monday and we found out on Saturday evening that the piece just wasn’t going to make it. We made an ice cream sundae but we left the ice cream in New York.

Q: Tell us about the community involvement.

LSM: A friend of mine took me down to the river, and we met some fisherman—stoner crabbers—and they could have told us to get lost, but they told us to go with them. And literally for two hours we were dipping into the water and finding things—rope, buoys, and all kinds of found materials because that’s really what Emily’s process is about. I am so amazed by her and really in awe of her, because it is so difficult to create when it’s not in your space.

Q: How long did it take to rebuild?

LSM: We needed every minute that we had. This piece was still being worked on the day that the show opened. I come to sculpture through painting, so I was glazing layers of paint onto the wood to give a different surface to it. Local artist and furniture maker Todd Wilson opened up his home and gave us two days of his time and helped us see this through.

Q: How different was this process as opposed to your process normally?

ENL: I usually work with reclaimed materials, and so we were again in a round about way searching for materials that we needed. It was an amazing thing because that process is usually something I do on my own, but here Lauren was able to get involved and pull ropes out of the water, and it was a great way for this process to open up and involve people. I couldn’t have done it on my own.