Accession Number
2003/2.80

Title
Stone Eater

Artist(s)
Alain Mailland

Object Creation Date
2000

Medium & Support
elm burl, Italian stones

Dimensions
17 1/16 x 12 1/16 x 12 1/16 in. (43.2 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Robert M. and Lillian Montalto Bohlen

Label copy
Alain Mailland
Born 1959, Ivory Coast, Africa
Lives and works in Uzès, France
The Stone Eater
2000
Elm burl, Italian stones
Gift of Robert M. and Lillian Montalto Bohlen, 2003/2.80
As a painter at a very young age, Mailland was highly influenced by both the French Impressionists and the herbarium that his mother kept when he was a boy. Both taught him to see the world in particular ways—the former through transcending the everyday appearance of things, the latter through the structures of the natural world. Mailland combines these two ways of seeing in his work. Pieces like The Stone Eater appear so deeply organic as to instantly convince us that they can be found in nature, when their only source is in fact Mailland’s imagination.
(Out of the Ordinary, 2010)
March 28, 2009
Alain Mailland began working with wood in the early 1990s and quickly gained a reputation among woodturners for his unique and elaborately turned pieces. Specializing in greenwood hollowing, which is especially difficult because of the way the work warps and changes during the drying process, Mailland developed his own distinctive style and technique. Carved from one solid block of wood with each tiny vessel individually turned on a different axis on the lathe, The Stone Eater is exemplary in its technical achievement. Mailland is able to transform a piece of wood into a fanciful marine organism, creating an homage to wood and nature and revealing just how far he is able to push the limits of his medium.

Subject matter
After taking a course in woodturning, Alain Mailland established his own woodworking shop devoted to cabinetry, stairs, and verandas. In the early 1990s, he turned his focus solely to wood art, specializing in greenwood hollowing because “it’s a live material…and it later changes shape in an interesting way.” He quickly gained a reputation for his unique work and for turning some of the most difficult pieces created.
Complex and intricately carved, The Stone Eater is exemplary in its technical achievement. Each small vessel was individually turned, and yet the piece as a whole is still a single block of wood. It shows just how far Mailland is prepared to push the limits of technical skill.
The overall effect is one of a barnacle-like sea organism.

Physical Description
Turned-wood sculpture composed of a cluster of small jar-like vessels with stones embedded througout
small hollow vessels with stones, joined into one whole

Primary Object Classification
Sculpture

Primary Object Type
abstract sculpture

Additional Object Classification(s)
Sculpture

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
vessels (containers)
wood (plant material)