I visited Richard Vosseller’s studio in late-December 2010, just after that first bit of east coast snow. Work of this magnitude presents a number of challenges to the artist, many of which are simply practical. Our conversation [disclosure: I have been friends with Vosseller at least since we were both in a group show at Transformer] skimmed the surface of Vosseller’s work and the whole time I was trying to comprehend the realness of it all – the solid structures which would emerge out of the drawn ramblings of an artist who works large and wants to work larger. Vosseller talked about an interdisciplinary process involving drawing (“it all starts with drawing,” he said more than once), painting, model construction, as well as extensive knowledge about materials, joinery methods – and then of course one has to actually build the thing, transport it, install it. At the time of my visit Richard had work in “Skateboarding Side Effects,” the inaugural exhibition at Artisphere in Rosslyn, Virginia. He referenced the skateable artwork as something designed and built to be used, differentiating it from other projects. Often they are temporary, which strikes me as being unfortunate considering the amount of time it takes to plan and execute one project.
