Alma AllenUntitled
Living and working in Tepotzlán, a rural outpost two hours from Mexico City where the natural world feels close and encroaching, American artist Alma Allen makes abstract sculpture steeped in the aliveness of nature. Working in materials that he gathers around his home and studio – stone, wood, and clay – Allen melds an intimate, hand-hewn sensibility with innovative fabrication techniques.
Growing up in Utah, Allen became disillusioned with formal religion but found peace and communion in the canyons, mines, and petroglyph-dotted caves of the desert. He came into his own carving rocks, whittling wood, and sculpting symbolic tokens that he left to the elements. Today, Allen’s symbolic language endures through new media. Symbolizing psychological states, each composition combines preindustrial methods with 21st century technology. Allen begins by shaping small models by hand in clay, which he then digitally scans and 3D prints to create molds for casting bronze. Once the castings are made, each piece is welded together and buffed to complete the transformation from a soft, 3-inch clay model to a gleaming, 15-foot bronze. It is in this scaling up that the curve of a thumb, the imprint of a shell, or a pinched end is transfigured into something new and other that pulses with life.
Installed mere feet from the water at the head of Commonwealth Pier, Untitled finds connection and significance in its relationship to the harbor. In situ, the tallest face becomes a flattened fin, and its graceful, fluted curvature a marine mammal who has momentarily breached the deck. Seen from the air, sea, and land, Untitled becomes a joyful beacon in Boston Harbor, welcoming visitors landing at Logan Airport, commuting by ferry, or enjoying the Harbor Walk.
