Christian de Vietri

Karlkurla
2023
raw bronze
4 x 1.65 x 1.33 m
Kalgoorlie, Australia
Commissioner: City of Kalgoorlie
Fabricator: Dan Gentle Art Foundry
Photographer: Christian de Vietri


Karlkurla is named after the Indigenous word for the pear-like fruit native to the region from which the remote West Australian gold-mining town Kalgoorlie derives its name. The sculpture is made in raw uncoated bronze, such that it will slowly oxidise over time and eventually turn green-grey like the fruit. By exposing the sculpture to the elements and allowing nature to run its course, a story of human connection to site and return to Source will subtly unfold.

The location and title were approved by the local Indigenous community, who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which it will rest. May it serve as an icon of respect, acknowledgment and empowerment to the past, present and emerging Traditional Custodians and Elders of the place we now call Kalgoorlie, to their cultural, spiritual and educational practices, and to Nature herself.

Genesis Block (Paramāṇu)
NFT

model date: 2021
mint date: 2021-07-29
material capture: Gold 24K
units: 1 x 1 x 1
polygon count: 6
format: glb
size: 1 KB
aquisition: 0x4cddff23d036e15fe786508ffa39b27f73b4a01a
exhibition: Foundation
location: InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)


In blockchain technology, the Genesis Block is the first block of a blockchain, the original prototype block upon which all other blocks are built. These blocks get layered one on top of the other, with the Genesis Block being the foundation. A Genesis Block is unique in that it is the only block in a blockchain that does not reference a predecessor block. Similarly, in the ancient tradition of Vāstu, also known as the Mayonic tradition, the smallest possible division of matter is called the Paramāṇu. It is that beyond which no further division is possible, the whole which has no parts. The Paramanu is said to be cubic in form with a golden hue, and able to be perceived only by sages.

Spanda
2016
carbon fiber
30 x 17 x 1 m
Perth, Australia
Commissioner: Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority
Fabricator: ShapeShift
Photographer: Jarrad Seng


Spanda is a 9 story-high sculpture made of carbon fiber located in Perth, Western Australia. It was commissioned for fabrication by the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority of Western Australia and installed at Elizabeth Quay in 2016.

Intended as an icon to uplift the city and its inhabitants, the idea of human identity being constituted of layers or sheaths was a starting point for the sculpture’s design. These layers represent the contours and constituents of the human experience, proceeding from gross to subtle as one moves from the periphery to the core. The exponential repetition of the arch form creates the impression of an infinite vibration, a pattern of self-similarity that is intended to trigger the viewer's inner experience of wholeness, the recognition of themselves as individual expressions of the universal, intimately interconnected, and one with their total environment.

The sculpture was designed to have a strong sense of presence without being imposing nor obscuring any building or vantage point. It is aligned with the site such that the curvature of the form contrasts with gridded square buildings behind it. The arch-like quality of the form is mysteriously functionless as it is neither an entrance nor an exit, but stands alone, declaring its own liminal space for the viewer to merge with. The structure was built by a team of expert digital fabricators and engineers who re-purposed carbon fibre manufacturing technology from the aerospace industry to enable a truly unique civil structure that would not have been possible in traditional materials. Spanda is now the world's tallest free-standing structure made of carbon fiber.

The title of the work is a Sanskrit word meaning “divine cosmic vibration”. This term is used to describe how Consciousness generates and resorbs the manifest world by expanding and contracting in waves of its own expressive capacity. The sculpture is intended to be both a formal representation of this ‘spanda’ principle, and a tool, or means, to stimulate its experience.

“We praise that Śankara who is the source of the power of the wheel of energies by whose expansion (unmeśa) and contraction (nimeśa) the universe is absorbed and comes into being.”
~ Kallaṭa, Spanda-kārikās (trans. Mark Dyczkowski)

Spanda [Drawing]
NFT

The artist’s original digital drawing of the sculpture titled “Spanda”.

date: 2016
format: lossless png
dimensions: 25666px x 8561px
size: 1.1MB
edition: 1/1

Aquire


“Spanda” is a 9 story-high public sculpture by Christian de Vietri made of carbon fibre located in Perth, Western Australia. It was commissioned by the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority of Western Australia, fabricated by ShapeShift Design Technologies, and installed at Elizabeth Quay in 2016. This drawing articulates three different angles of the sculpture, and was used as the basis for its large scale production.

Spanda
2016
carbon fiber
30 x 17 x 1 m
Perth, Australia

Between Heaven and Earth
天地之间
2018
steel
9 x 10 x 8 m
Zhengzhou, China
Commissioner: ZhengHong Property
Fabricator: UAP
Photographer: Rex Zou


In ancient times, it was held that China was the “middle kingdom” between heaven and earth, and located at the center of this intermediary realm was Dengfeng, in Zhengzhou, where this sculpture is located. Confucians, Taoists, Buddhists, and Hindus all visited this region to worship at its holy mountain. The sculpture is inspired by the Indian sage Bodhidharma who transmitted Zen to China in Zhengzhou, and began the physical training of the monks of Shaolin Monastery that led to the creation of Shaolin kungfu.

Sculpture is inherently static. While there is a quality of dynamism to this form, there is also an innate stillness. This quality of "dynamic stillness" is tangible in kungfu adepts, who move and flow yet are poised from within. One can sense that at the core of being is not an inert void but rather a still silent aliveness that is dynamic - a silence from which activity spontaneously emerges. The result of realising this truth in everyday life is having the countenance to get out of the way or to take a step at the right time, to be in the flow of events as they proceed without contrivance. It may sound like a capacity that one possesses, but this quality that is seen in others and that is experienced individually is always a shared phenomenon as innate interconnectedness is realized.

In the meditation which Bodhidharma transmitted to China, one of the most important ideas is that true power arises from inner peace, from the silent mediative mind. It is a pure energy born of concentration, devotion, and compassion, flowing forth freely, of its own accord, and its own will. Between Heaven and Earth is intended as an embodiment of this power, serving as a reference point for one to locate it as an experience within oneself.

Flowing fabric has been important iconographic element of both the western and eastern traditions of sculpture. In the West during the baroque period, flowing fabric adorned religious icons as a way of emphasising the theatrical and divine nature of the subject. In the East, icons of the Buddhist and Hindu pantheon wear fluttering scarfs and flowing garments that imply the effulgence and vitality of the deity. In both traditions flowing fabric has a weightless quality, as if unaffected by gravity, suggesting a quality beyond our worldly conception of space and time. Between Heaven and Earth simplifies and distils this element into a secular expression of the energy that animates and unifies all of life.

“To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity. To transcend movement and stillness is the highest meditiation”
~ Bodhidharma, The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma (trans. Red Pine)

Between Heaven and Earth
天地之间
2018
steel
9 x 10 x 8 m
Zhengzhou, China

Between Heaven and Earth
天地之间
2018
steel
9 x 10 x 8 m
Zhengzhou, China

Between Heaven and Earth
天地之间
2018
steel
9 x 10 x 8 m
Zhengzhou, China

Between Heaven and Earth
天地之间
2018
steel
9 x 10 x 8 m
Zhengzhou, China

Between Heaven and Earth
天地之间
2018
steel
9 x 10 x 8 m
Zhengzhou, China

Ascalon
collaboration with Marcus Canning
2011
e-glass, steel, light
18 x 11 x 9 m
Perth, Australia
Commissioner: St George’s Cathedral Perth
Fabricator: Swarbrick, Capital House
Photographer: Robert Frith


Commissioned by Saint George’s Cathedral Australia, Ascalon is inspired by the myth of Saint George, and is named after the lance with which he is said to have slayed a dragon. Saint George is somewhat unique in his cross-cultural and cross-denominational significance. He is the patron saint of a more diverse array of places and peoples than perhaps any other, and the only one that has a tradition of veneration by Christians alongside Muslims in the Holy Land. The universal veneration applied to him surpasses that of many Christian martyr Saints. His story, and the myth that surrounds him, expresses an archetypal truth. He embodies a universal theme, the struggle for good to overcome evil, and for light to prevail over darkness. This pertains to the particular and the personal, as well as to the progression of the collective enterprise of humanity across time.

“How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.”
~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Ascalon
collaboration with Marcus Canning
2011
e-glass, steel, light
18 x 11 x 9 m
Perth, Australia
Commissioner: St George’s Cathedral Perth
Fabricator: Swarbrick, Capital House
Photographer: Robert Frith

Ascalon
collaboration with Marcus Canning
2011
e-glass, steel, light
18 x 11 x 9 m
Perth, Australia
Commissioner: St George’s Cathedral Perth
Fabricator: Swarbrick, Capital House
Photographer: Robert Frith

The Gathering
2009
aluminium
1.8 x 1.2 x 1.2 m
New York, USA
Commissioner: Public Art Fund
Fabricator: Beddi Makky Foundry
Photographer: Christian de Vietri


Commissioned by Public Art Fund, The Gathering is the second in a series of public sculptures made by and about ‘fire’. It is created through the process of burning and it evokes the activities and connectedness implied by the bonfire as a form. Since the dawn of time fire has served as a nexus of human activity and interaction. It brought early humans out of literal and spiritual darkness, marking the very beginnings of civilization. The bonfire could well have been the very first structure consciously constructed by man, and as such it transcends time and space. The sculpture is also a memorial to its own process of creation. The wood which composes the form was completely burnt out in a mold during the process of metal casting. To experience the sculpture while at the same time taking into consideration this process of materialization, is to enter an ontological paradox, which, like a Zen Kōan, disables the mind’s ability to logically comprehend it - it appears as an unlit campfire, but the entire process of burning has already taken place.

“I praise the divine fire of Consciousness…”
~ Rig Veda 1.1.1.

The Gathering (detail)
2009
aluminium
1.8 x 1.2 x 1.2 m
New York, USA

The Gathering
2009
aluminium
1.8 x 1.2 x 1.2 m
New York, USA

X (Al)
2009
aluminium
60 x 60 x 50 cm
Socrates Sculpture Park, New York
Commissioner: Socrates Sculpture Park
Fabricator: Beddi Makky Foundry
Photographer: Steven Bates

X (Cu)
2009
bronze
60 x 60 x 50 cm
Photographer: Anders Nord

collection of Axel Nordin

Zero, X, Lightyears
2009
marble, aluminium, phosphorescent resin
Emily Fisher Landau Gallery, New York
Photographer: Talia Chetrit

collection of Aïshti Foundation
collection of Axel Nordin
collection of Marcus Canning

Tim
aluminium
2007
230 x 60 x 60 cm
Photographer: Adrian Lambert

Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane) collection

Raph
2006
gold leafed resin
230 x 60 x 60 cm
Photographer: Adrian Lambert

Private collection

Simon
2006
marble
230 x 60 x 60 cm
Photographer: Adrian Lambert

Private collection

White Wind
2005
fibreglass
226 x 60 x 60 cm
Photographer: Adrian Lambert

Kerry Stokes collection

Second Law
2004
fibreglass
240 x 170 x 120 cm
Photographer: Adrian Lambert

Art Gallery of New South Wales collection

Third Law
2004
fibreglass
430 x 300 x 10 cm
Photographer: Adrian Lambert

Kerry Stokes collection