I found myself passing near Harry Bertoia's studio on a trip with my husband to Pennsylvania and took the opportunity to visit there. I was introduced to his work at the MAD in NYC (see the last post) and was eager to see more.
We met Harry Bertoia's son, Val at the studio housed in an old stone building, a former Ford dealership, on busy route 100 in Bally, Pa. Val is himself a sculptor and his work was everywhere, some a spinoff of his fathers wire sound sculptures and gongs, large metal plates cut in organic shapes and suspended from the ceiling. We tried some, striking the gongs with mallets and strumming the wires of the sculptures to hear their other worldly sounds.
Val was a very authentic guide, telling us of his father and his mother's lives, and seemed to take joy in doing so, and joy also in making the music. In the studio, he demonstrated the effects of a huge hollow gong, having us guess how it made both high and low tones.
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| the forest on the barn road |
After this introduction, we followed Val in our car several miles on back roads into the wooded hills. We were greeted by an attention seeking cat at the barn, a part stone, part timber structure that Val said was 360 years old. 2016 - 360 = 1656? Could that be right?
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| the area around the barn was scattered with sculptures and structures and one tabby cat |
Inside the barn, the entire main floor was filled with sculptures with microphones hanging from above. It was a sound studio and a gallery in one. There we sat in a row of Harry Bertoia designed chairs (the famous plywood and wire Eames chair were designed by him, Val said) and listened to him perform. We let the sounds wash over us, all the metal gongs and wires vibrating with what Val said was a healing music. It was mesmerizing, and we continued to listen after he sat down and the vibrations slowly quieted and stilled.
Then we played too.
Magical.
Outside again, the cat coming along with us, we walked to the large gong and the stone where Harry and his wife, Brigitte are buried.
Val gave me a DVD, a CD and a warm hug before we left. This glimpse into his world touched on new ideas, people and activities of which I was unaware. Just one phrase gives a hint of it: "Gong Camp!"
Val is continuing his father's explorations. The Bertoia studio is not only a memorial to an important artist, but an inspiration for work in progress. I felt privileged to be there to experience it.
