ART MODELING ( left ) Stuart Collection Director Mary Beebe with an early proposal model of Do Ho Suh ’ s Fallen Star and one of several duplicates of Tim Hawkinson ’ s Bear . UC San Diego ’ s Supercomputer Center scanned each boulder and 3-D printed miniature replicas for engineers to determine how to create an earthquakeproof foundation .
( below ) Before Bear was even a model , Hawkinson ’ s sketches brought forth an extensive search for the right boulders .
THE CREATION OF THAT ASTOUNDING BEAR took an equally astounding effort , which began with the inspiration of artist Tim Hawkinson . “ There are major boulders all around this region and that ’ s what inspired Tim — he would see animal shapes in them ,” Beebe recalls . “ Mathieu and I drove around and while we could see them , we couldn ’ t get to them . So we advertised , drove and researched more — it took us a year and a half before the Pala Band of Mission Indians told us about a quarry with boulders they had but were no longer interested in . We found the stone for the torso first , because you can ’ t look for arms and legs until you know what size torso you ’ re working with .”
As project manager , it is often up to Gregoire to figure out the nuts and bolts of how to physically create and install the art .
“ None of these things have ever been built before , so each has to be designed from scratch . That ’ s a hard thing to do ,” Gregoire says . “ I remember Alexis Smith saying these things can be incredibly complicated but they need to look like they are the easiest thing in the world . It needs to look right and not like it was a struggle to install . It needs to look effortless .”
Yet there ’ s nothing effortless about a granite teddy bear whose 360,000‐pound body parts came with no easy way for the artist to put them together . Then Gregoire had an idea to tap into UC San Diego talent .
“ What ’ s wonderful is to be able to involve people outside of the arts in the making of an art project ,” Gregoire says . “ Bear is an example of that — we worked with the Jacobs School of Engineering and
the Supercomputer Center to scan the rocks with laser equipment . The technology was brand new back then , and they 3‐D printed scale models that we sent
to Tim Hawkinson so he could play with them in a very real and direct way in his studio . It was a wonderful thing .”
Gregoire then had to enlist structural engineers to figure out how to make Bear earthquake proof ( it has survived one big earthquake so far ) and install it . Ever since , this “ cuddly ” granite teddy bear has been embraced by the students .
“ It has gotten costumes , a cap and gown , and heart‐shaped glasses for Valentine ’ s Day ,” Beebe recounts with delight . “ Every year a student engineering club asks me if they can do something , and for a couple of years they just did a pocket protector . I said , ‘ Well that ’ s cute , but come on , you must be able to think of something more interesting . Get your brains cooking .’ Then they came up with Beary Potter , which was hilarious . I love the interac‐ tion . It ’ s an important part of all these works .”
TRITONMAG . COM 27