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| Bobby Tso |
HAPPY NEW YEAR!...OK, so I am a little late.
I am back in the tundra that is western PA, fresh off the plane from spending the New Year celebration down in a much more temperate climate, filling my belly with fresh shrimp and Bloody Marys...Florida. And I want to forget about all that "best of 2012" crap and simply start anew this chilly morn. Lets just plow on through and leave 2012 sitting by the curb. 2013 has much more to offer, hope your buckled in!
I said it was coming and now its here...the homefry sketchbook artist interview series! WOOHOO! This is number one of hopefully many raw, unfiltered, and interesting interviews with artists this year. To kick this series off, I have chosen a special artist that I have had the pleasure of working with and have enjoyed watching the evolution of his most recent body of work while finishing his M.F.A. degree at the University of Iowa....
Kwak-Pong "Bobby" Tso...Bobby graciously answered questions and provided me with plenty of great images of his work over the holidays, so thank you once again to Bobby Tso! I am sure this won't be the last you hear of Mr. Tso. Click on the pics to see larger. Also see more at Bobby's website
HERE.
homefry sketchbook: First of all, I would like to extend a hearty
congratulations to you on being the first artist in this hoped to be long lived series
of fascinating clay based interviews. We here at homefry sketchbook are
anxiously awaiting your responses to the following deeply probing questions…as
are the millions (OK, maybe not actually millions but "some" at least) of
dedicated blog readers...
hs: To be clear for all the readers, homefry sketchbook has
been Facebook friends with you for a while now and in further disclosure, first
met you several years ago during a summer residency at Chautauqua School of Art
in Chautauqua, New York. Is this information true to the best of your
recollection and or do you have anything to add?
Bobby Tso: Yea,Sir!
I have been friend with Homefry Sketchbook for almost 4years now I believe! It
was a wonderful summer and I am so thankful for knowing Captain Kyle!
hs: Please take a moment to introduce yourself and let
everyone know where you are geographically located and what you might be up to
these days…then we will start with your most current body of work…
BT: I am from HongKong China, the southern part China, we
love pet and we pet them we don’t eat them there if anyone is interested to
know. I am currently a graduate student at University of Iowa, Iowa City, where I
have been spend the past 3 years getting my Master of Fine Art Degree.
hs: How did your recent body of work manifest itself
conceptually? Can you elaborate on your thoughts about why you are creating
this body of work? What’s your biggest point of reference for your work?
BT: So it is
a very long story, you may want some coffee, eat something sweet or both! So the core ideas of this recent body of work
are to enrich
the nature and weight of materials. By producing a clear and concise space, I
am able to create a connection in the relationship between one object to
another. This connection is a metaphor to express the importance of this
miscellaneous, compact relationship, using reduction, negation, and
clarification to achieve a simplified composition.
This is the basic idea and I
got more!
Here is how I discover my
recent work! While working every day in the studio, I realize what's
missing in the day to day creative process, it is the “process of discovering a
question”, and for me this question lead me
to understand something not by define it or describe it, is to feel it, I am inspired by something that
is recognizable but has an uncertain function,
it is taking something that we think we already know and making it unknown
thrills us afresh with its reality and deepens our understanding of it. Most
of my works are influenced by man-made objects; something like a view of
building blocks from the sky, transformer boxes out in the field, and strange
formations on the roof, push bottom, gears, even food!
I believe each material has its own “Weight”; when I am organizing
my compositions in my studio practice, I focus on how to balance those
“Weights” by playing with the objects and rearranging them. In do so I am able
to achieve the composition that interacts with volume, space and light. I
embrace this abstracted space, through the characteristics of different
materials, and express the qualities of balance, weight, and texture. Each
physical and conceptual element of the materials is now able to provide the
viewer with a clear direction, through the control of differences
within my compositions.
Materials express itself in its simple form,
by being honest to the materials and keeping them truer; this interest brings
that “weight” I spoke of earlier out of my materials. Through sensation,
communication, investigation, and exploration, material start to take on a life
of its own and create meaning. When less become more, the art work becomes quiet yet majestic, complex but minimal.
hs: On your website http://bobbytso.com you also feature
installation, wood and metals work, all with this recurring minimal form . What
is your fascination with the reduced form and/or this sense of sculptural
abstraction and could you ever get tired of it?
BT: I will never get tired of it, they just keep on making me
think!!! By the way this is interesting question that not many people ask; I
always think it is very strange that sometime somehow things happen that
will make you think about stuff that is not totally related
One of the metaphor/idea I have about the work that I do, is closely related to a simple thing like a nut
and bolt, most people/ us talk about big picture a lot,
which i think is funny that the way we view stuff make us miss/overlook
something that are small but important, like the nuts and bolts, everything has
is purpose(the reason for which something exists) without those small
objects/pictures we will never get to the big picture, a building without those
nuts and bolts will fail, like us without those little thing we do will not
make who we are. to understand the big picture or what we do we have to
understand and look at everything we do, like to know someone, is to understand
what they eat, what they drink or even what they wear so we can understand who
they are in a raw format, break it down to the bare minimal so we can
understand and move by it.
I think this
make a lot of sense to me and that is why my work is geared toward the minimal
form, I think/I guess.
hs: I really love, love, love the simple doughnut and square
shaped pieces that seem to rest on various objects. If form is so important in
the pieces, how do the truly stunning patterned surfaces fit in to the works?
BT:The patterned doughnuts are actually related more to my
recent trip to Jingdezhen, China, where the blue and white China was born! I
was influenced by the long and wonderful history of China ware, and because I
was never expose to clay when I was home, so I decided to make those pieces and
be connected to my home country
hs: Would you mind giving a little technical information to
the readers as to how you create the surface decorations?
BT: so they are actually the famous decal! In Jingdezhen,
China, you can pick up any kind of decal with all kind of pattern! So they are
decal that I cut in to size for my doughnuts.
hs: Please let us know if you have been showing anywhere
recently and what are your plans for the near future?
BT: I just finish up my MFA show, and I am having a piece in
a show call beyond the brickyard at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramics
arts in February. And I am also having a piece in a show call Functional/Dysfunctional National Juried Ceramics Competition
at Morean Art Center, St.Petersburg,FL
hs: By the way, do you make pots at all? Did you ever? Will
you ever again make pots?
BT: Yes I do, I was one of the TA for wheel throwing class,
and once a while I still make pots to keep myself working and think thing over!
hs: If you’re like me, you look at A LOT of different
peoples work…is there anybody current that you are really into…in ceramics or
outside ceramics.
Outside of ceramics, I look at a lot of design’s work from
website like fab.com, and notcot.org, sometime they will have really cool stuff
that is simple but interesting
hs: We here at the homefry sketchbook are really into music
and each post we feature a youtube video of music that is in heavy rotation
around the studio/office/ipod…who is it that you are listening to in the studio
these days, or are you a book on tape guy, TV guy, or just pure silence type
guy?
BT: I think I am the headphone plug-in kind of guy, I have
been looping Blackmill and Passion Pit a lot!
But a really wonderful friend told me about Starfucker, and basically I created my whole
MFA show by looping Starfucker from the time I wake up till I Sleep….usually
that is from 8- 2 or 3 in the morning!
Thanks Kyle!!!!!!!!
hs: Thank you Bobby and we wish you the best ...Happy New Year
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| Bobby Tso |
