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Figure 1: Phil displays the wax burnout kiln filled with student projects
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There are many unsung heroes serving the community here at Purchase College, people who help our students manage their day-to-day lives and develop their hopes and dreams into real careers. Many such people are to be found among the over 200 Part-Time Faculty who teach on campus, especially those who have been teaching here on a part-time basis for many years.
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Figure 2: David Plummer removes sand from the pouring pit to make room for the molds
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Phil Listengart (figure 1) exemplifies this kind of person -- teacher, advisor, mentor, and friend to so many Purchase students for going on thirty years. Since 1976, he has taught the "lost wax" process to novice sculptors among other courses in the School of Art + Design. But repetition has not dulled his passion for teaching the 4,000 year old process. For Phil, "Art is a small universe of construction in a world filled with destruction." Indeed, Phil "still feels the excitement like a new romance or love affair" when the lid comes off the furnace for pouring. Here at Purchase, the enthusiasm for learning he finds in our students lead him to say with a smile that "retirement is not part of my design."
Speaking with some of his students, we find that the enthusiasm he experiences is due in no small part to his effectiveness as a teacher. David Plummer is a sophomore and has declared as a printmaking major in Art+Design (Figure 2). It is not readily apparent why a printmaker is also interested in sculpture but, in conversation, we discover that Phil's reputation drew David to take the course. He was attracted to the idea of the "immortality" and permanence represented by works of bronze. Although the process is tedious at times, such as when working the sand pit (figure 2), Phil has inspired David to make two more pieces than required for the course. As further testimony to Phil as a teacher, most of the other students we were able to talk with either had taken or planned to take other courses Phil teaches regularly, "Sculpture I," "The Figure as Metaphor,"
"Figure Modeling," and "Direct Carving."
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Figure 3: Laura Philippo with her work-in-process, castings of children's hands
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Laura Filippo, a sculptor and member of the class of 2001, works part-time for Phil as a technical assistant. In Figure 3, Laura displays one of her own in-process works as a preview for the reader. This piece is one of a series of castings she has been making of children's hands.
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Figure 4: Closeup: Bronze casting of a child's hand
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The physical impressions are taken in alginate, a material used by dentists for taking impressions for dentures and other dental prostheses. It is a safe, pliable material, perfect for working with Laura's nursery school aged subjects. Alginate is preferred for its ability to capture fine details in its impressions, such as the tiny creases in the child's hand displayed in Figure 4. Note also the unusual system of rods in bronze attached to the small bronze hands. These represent "positive" realizations of the extensive "gating system" necessary to the process and are described further below (Figure 5).
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Figure 5: A work-in-process - bronze impressions of children's hands with gating system still attached
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The first day of our visit is "pouring day" for the 21 students in Phil's class, perhaps the most exciting day in the whole semester, the day when bronze will be poured into the molds of works they have developed for the course. The Lost Wax method as taught by Phil Listengart is the same as that used by Benvenuto Cellini during the 16th century, perhaps the greatest metal smith of the Renaissance period. The only difference between the Renaissance master's technique and Phil's is the substitution of silicon bronze for the traditional alloy of copper and tin. Silicon bronze is renowned for beauty, durability, and its capacity for patina.
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Figure 6: Phil with Metalshop Technician, Eric Wildrick
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Most students begin the process by developing a model in wax. Before the investment mold is made to enclose the wax model, a "gating" or umbilical system is incorporated to allow the purging air from the interior and insure that the molten metal fills all the "negative" space, even the finest details. Phil likens this negative impression to a "code" of the original sculpture, of what it was, while the pouring of the metal constitutes a "restoration" of the piece that was burnt away and "lost."
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Figure 7: Stavroula Kolitsopoulous, a Senior and student technical assistant, carefully maneuvers a heavy mold onto the cart
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In the burnout kiln, the wax is "lost," i.e., melted out, through the gating system before being replaced with molten bronze. The burnout kiln itself (see Figure 1) was hand-built by Metalshop Technical Specialist, Eric Wildrick (Figure 6), and is located outside the shop. The students' plaster-and-sand molds are trucked out through a large, garage-door opening built into one wall of the building. These investment molds are then stacked inside to facilitate the melting process. Much care must be taken in moving the molds out of the kiln because large, empty spaces remain after the wax has been melted out so they are more fragile than they appear (Figure 7). Phil personally directs these moves to insure safe handling procedures are followed and marks each as appropriate before they are moved inside (Figure 8). Once carted back inside, the empty molds are immediately placed in the pouring sand pit. Students take turns spreading the sand in and around the molds.
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| Figure 8: Phil marks each mold individually once burned out before they are moved inside to the pouring pit |