Sallay Daniel

Started in Transylvania. I made a piece from a handful of clay. Then another one. I did not know the result. It was simple and easy. I got into a strange meditative state. And then I decided to make 341 pieces. Why so much? 100 are a few, I thought, 300 are already quite a lot, and I finally multiplied two prime numbers. They’re all different. Having no preconception, they came in line. The result was good if it just happened. When I felt one too big, the next was much smaller. I always present these in chronological order, so the progression is observable. From top-view, the final result is like a relief map.

The second series is my thesis work of 120 objects, made of white marble. Working with tools and stone taught me that the form is completely material dependent. When carving, I go under, going into a separate world. And the objects generated a language with grammar and words, of which sentences and poems could be edited.

In my childhood I had a lot of sports to be fatigated for the evening. The art school was an idea of my mother. That was pretty unusual for, except her, everyone in the family was an engineer. One afternoon she grabbed me from the basketball training to get into the prep of the art high school. I did not have my glasses. I had to draw a wire box; of course I did not see any of it. Finally, I was enrolled to the graphics major, but I went into the sculpture course in the second year. I was the first student. I was very near to the stone. According to others,I was born with beard and chisel.

After the safety of the university years, the question was how to proceed. I gained some time moving to Poland. I lived from restoration. This is in a high level there. I returned home after two years. The first important thing I understood here was to live according a time management.

For a month I moved to the mountains, to a small forest house. There was the samizdat printhouse of the (illegal) opposition in the eighties. It was three years ago. By working, I am experimenting with what makes the material to a form. Abstract forms need not to be consistent with nature.

If I remember well, I made my first woodcarving by the campfire. I just took a piece of firewood. A statue need not have a story. When I work with stone, I feel like a reincarnated archeologist, receiving a message from the past.

I work on multiple projects at one time. The pieces for the Autumn exhibition will be made of polyurethane. But I continue to work with the wood figures of the „Monstrum”. First pieces of the „Alien, the Extraterrestrial” series are made of plastics for the time being, but I am looking for using metals.

I have started a new series: to create 1000 pieces of palm statues, of Tardos limestone. If one piece is sold, two more has to make. Since it is unforeseeable when it arrives to someone, creating has time gaps. In this case I assume these time shifts. If all of the thousand pieces are done, I am to publish a catalog of the series, containing not only the photos of the objects but the name and town of the owners.