Sculpture · Wood
Silas Reed
Burlington, Vermont, United States
“Joinery is where an object admits what it needs.”
Biography
Silas Reed began as a furniture maker and gradually removed utility from his forms while keeping joinery visible. His carved loops and interlocking arcs draw their character from maple, oak, pigment, fire, and the intelligence of the grain.
Artist statement
Reed wants a sculpture to disclose how it stays together. Openings, pins, and raw edges are not details added afterward; they are the grammar of the form.
In the studio
Reed roughs forms with saws, then carves slowly across the grain with gouges he sharpens himself. Surfaces may be washed with pigment, waxed, or charred, but never coated so heavily that the wood disappears.
