Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories
No. 7, 1987
Carlos Dorrien
Born 1948, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lives in Wellesley, MA; works in Randolf Center, VT
No. 7, 1987, granite, 20" x 46" x 18", Lent by the Artist, Courtesy Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
Carlos Dorrien is a stone carver who creates abstract and semi-abstract works inspired by architecture, history, archaeological ruins, and contemporary architectural and natural settings. The scale of his sculpture ranges from the monumental to the tiny. In this small sculpture from a series of related untitled works, Dorrien has gently transmogrified a small, rough boulder into an objects that calls to mind ancient, abandoned temples. The artist has used the poetics of the miniscule to create a work which, although small in size, is imaginatively vast.
"For me, life is a mystery—it's a constant mystery," explains Dorrien, "You can never solve the riddle of who we are and what happened before and what happens afterward. So with my works, which really have nothing to do with time, the mystery is formed in the timelessness of the piece."
Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories, 2000
Carlos Dorrien
Born 1948, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lives in Wellesley, MA; works in Randolf Center, VT
Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories, 2000, granite, 8' x 10' x 55', DeCordova Permanent Collection 2000.43, Museum Purchase and Gift of the Artist, Site-specific installation
Carlos Dorrien is one of the foremost artists working in stone sculpture today. Creating forms that are part abstract and part referential, Dorrien takes his inspiration from nature, architecture, archaeological ruins and the human figure.
In Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories, a large-scale sculptural installation designed expressly for the promontory overlooking Flint's Pond, the artist brings together three of his major artistic themes: the door, the flying carpet, and a granite floor. For Dorrien, doors and flying carpets are symbolic vehicles for accessing the creative imagination. About the importance of the floor in his work, he has said: "The carved slab opens up the spatial life of the object and its surrounding space. Also, the slabs can inspire in the objects on top of them a sense of ceremonial mystery."
