Pam Gazalé
Artist
EVENT: Halite, an exhibition of sculpture carved from salt, at Esther Claypool Gallery, 671 Western Ave, through Dec 2.

Why salt? "I became interested in it from a documentary on TV about Middle Eastern salt traders. It has a really rich history. It's referred to in the Bible so many times, and I'm not overly religious, but I like the idea that it's included, you know--the salt of the earth. It's essential for life, and if we don't have it we can't survive. I've worked in many different materials, and salt tends to be more conceptually based. I want people to be able to see the work on many layers and levels. I like that I'm fooling them, that they don't know what they're looking at. I'm mimicking classical sculpture, playing with it. At one point in time, salt was considered currency. The word 'salary' comes from that particular thing. The whole idea that it was currency, something considered so valuable, and today it's considered so commonplace, and I'm making things out of that. The amount of time and effort and experience and feelings and thoughts I put into making something--it takes a long time. It's similar to carving stone."

I like the feeling that you're coercing the material into a shape that's counterintuitive to the material's qualities--like the fabric, and the pillows. "I wanted the work to look fabric-like, and to show that it's tactile. I mean, salt is in our bodies, we sweat it out. The things I've carved are things we're intimate with. The pillows--we spend eight hours a day sleeping on them, sweating, and they absorb our oils. For the still life in the show, I was thinking about what it's like to have a fever and have a compress on your head--the medicinal or therapeutic effects of salt.

What is salt like to work with? Does it crumble? "It's pretty consistent and fairly stable. But you're limited in what you can do. With marble you can get so much more detail, it's incredible. When I look at marble sculpture, I'm amazed--they can actually carve netting. You couldn't do that with this material. But I try to take it to its limit."