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Math and science thrive in blacksmith Stephen Chilingirian’s workshop
photo by Brent Fleury
Say the word “blacksmith” and certain images come to mind: a hot, dark forge and a strong-armed fellow, perhaps more brawn than brains. Smithing is not considered one of the more conceptual arts. It’s all muscle, fire and steel — as earthy as it comes, according to its reputation.
Astrophysics, on the other hand, is viewed as the loftiest of pursuits, incomprehensible to most, and frankly intimidating. It’s hard to imagine the intersection where these two ends of the head-vs.-hands spectrum meet. But that’s the place where Zirconia blacksmith Stephen Chilingirian loves to work.
Chilingirian, who studied astrophysics at Berkeley, has always chosen professions that keep his feet squarely on the ground. From running an organic cattle farm to designing, building and repairing motorcycles to blacksmithing, he’s happiest working with his hands. But his approach always includes big-picture (really big-picture) thinking. Take the piece he’s currently creating, a large-scale sculptural composition called the Universe of Music. Its lines mathematically echo the opening measures of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, which, Chilingirian explains, the composer, perhaps unintentionally, arranged along the Golden Mean (represented by the number 1.6180339887).
But scholars say it’s found in music, art and architecture as the ideal expression of harmony and aesthetic perfection. And while most artists strive for that in their work, they probably don’t do calculus, trigonometry and advanced geometry to achieve it like Chilingirian does.
The patterns, codes and symbols used by ancient cultures to express universal ideas are a source of fascination for the artist. He’s studied the work of Thomas and Stuart Mitchell, a father-and-son team who uncovered codes etched into the sculpture at Scotland’s ancient Rosslyn Chapel (of Da Vinci Code fame). He’s familiar with Mayan astronomy and mathematics; in fact, his interest in the pyramids led him to create Orion’s Pyramid, a piece recently included in a juried outdoor-sculpture show at Riverfront Park in North Charleston. “The vents in the pyramids were sited toward the constellations, and Orion was a very important one for them,” explains Chilingirian. Through his own calculations, he designed the sculpture so that it cast a perfect shadow at 3pm on the winter solstice: an impressive piece both of mathematics and art.
From Chilingirian’s perspective, the leap from physics to physical labor is not so great. Shaping steel is, after all, just rearranging its fluid molecular structure. “When I look at forged steel, I don’t see a solid object,” he says. “I see goo.” Few people know that the molecules even keep moving after a piece has cooled. Chilingirian says that phenomenon really struck him as he was looking at one of his functional pieces, a candle stand called The Fire of Delphi.
“The stand is solid, but its shadows look like dancing flames.” Which is, theoretically speaking, a more accurate description of the matter that makes up the piece.
Chilingirian is particularly drawn to the winding, curving shapes he achieves in his smaller-scale decorative and functional work: steel flowers, hooks, racks, knives, and fireplace sets. “With such organic lines and texture, people can’t believe they’re made of steel,” he says. While many of his pieces are finished only with a wire brush, his line of decorative flowers achieve their flair via gilder’s paste, yielding a smooth, glass-like surface that almost looks like enamel.
Working out of his garage, Chilingirian fires up the forge nearly every day, and makes his own tools according to his needs. In fact, that’s what got him into blacksmithing in the first place: forging the tools he needed for work on his Colorado cattle ranch. While he hadn’t intended to pursue forging as a creative outlet, friends and then others started asking him to make things. He found that the sculptures just started to emerge, and notes: “I always start with a story first.”
After a move to eastern North Carolina, Chilingirian started showing his work and joining expos and fairs. He edged west to the mountains in 2007 and now focuses almost exclusively on art, participating in regional shows such the Kaleidoscope Contemporary Landscape Juried Sculpture Exhibit at the North Carolina Arboretum. His Fibonacci’s Hidden Gold is currently part of the Salisbury Sculpture Show.
But exploring the mysteries of the universe remains very much embedded in what he does. He still scans the skies with a telescope he made himself. And he still includes all those big, cosmic patterns in all of the work he makes.
Local Resources: Stephen Chilingirian – metalsmith
