The Luted Crucible 2017

an exhibition of small bronzes

This semester, students at the New Mexico School for the Arts have been learning a pre-industrial bronze casting process from visiting artist Piers Watson, and working with artist Brian Fleetwood on 3-d printing technology to be used for bronze casting.  We are pleased to exhibit the small bronze sculptures that have resulted from this work together. In addition we will exhibit several small works using this same technique by other local artists.

The Luted Crucible bronze casting process has been used for centuries in India. Originally from Santa Fe, Piers Watson made several trips to the rural community of Bastar, Chhattisgarh, India, where he apprenticed with local bronze casters to learn this direct wood-fired casting technique. Since that time, he has been traveling in Europe and the U.S. teaching it to other artists. Last year he traveled to the metal casting neighborhood in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso, photographing and talking to the metal casters there, and learning some of their techniques and markets. He also lived with a metal casting family in Kumasi, Ghana as part of a collaborative research project between University of Michigan and the Ghana National Museum, and has learned something about their traditions of metal casting. The term “luted crucible” refers to the connecting or “luting” of two elements (in this case, the mould that contains the wax or 3-d printed object to be cast and the crucible that contains the copper and tin)