How to Bend Concrete in 108 Easy Steps
★★★★
Directed by: Mahesh Madhav
Starring: Neal Aronowitz
Short Film Review by: #Stefania
How to Bend Concrete in 108 Easy Steps is directed by Mahesh Madhav, starring Neal Aronowitz.
Engineering meets art as we follow a designer in his efforts to bend industrial concrete into beautiful furniture. Underneath the documenting of the physical process of manifesting the sculpture, they also document the ethos and mental process of ideation, discovery, and presentation — capturing what all content creators struggle with on every project.
Filmed in Portland, OR, Mahesh’s first documentary is capturing the creator struggling within his work.
Neal is a highly creative fine artist who develops ideas for sculptures and makes them come to life in three-dimensional form by joining or molding concrete together.
Sculptors have distinct personalities. They tend to be artistic individuals, which means they’re creative, intuitive, sensitive, articulate, and expressive. They are unstructured, original, nonconforming, and innovative. Some of them are also investigative, meaning they’re intellectual, introspective, and inquisitive. Using their imagination and artistic abilities, they craft objects from a variety of different materials, and turn them into works of art.
A thorough knowledge and a sharpened skillset are absolutely necessary for a designer to succeed in this field. Some, like artistic ability, may be inherent or learned through experience or cultivated while in school. You’ll discover Neal’s passion and devotion while he works and explains each step of the very heavy but intense process of handling a “big snake” of concrete.
Tools are also an important part of a sculptor’s arsenal. I was very impressed by the variety of instruments needed for anchoring and sustaining the piece of art while creating it.
Neal Aronowitz works in a studio environment that is large enough to accommodate his tools, materials, and finished work.
As Henri Matisse said: “You must forget all your theories, all your ideas before the subject.” This is what the main character of the short is doing, creating great masterpieces, that seem dead and alive in the same time and that will definitely turn into shameless creatures who laugh at their creator.
By sharing this story, the production team hopes they will encourage and uplift others who are on their own paths, internal or external, so feel free to share it.
