(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1999) Ahnen, Phillip S.
This work is carved using different axes, a process that does not allow modeling,
and involves no “finishing touches”. Using these tools, I engage abstraction, and work to
reveal myself through the clay. To me, the work is primarily about the nature of clay as a
malleable material; it is about the permanent record of my actions left in the wet clay, and
vocabulary of expressive mark-making. Secondary to abstraction, is the figure. The
figure is the lure for the viewer to engage my abstractions. The human form is common to
everyone, and in this scale invites the audience into its personal space. At the' same time,
these sculptures are nameless, and faceless, which affords each viewer the opportunity to
feel the body before them as if it were their own.
