A Dance Between the Physical and Philosophical

There is a lot of superb contemporary sculpture being made these days; this article by Allison Malafronte shines light on a gifted individual.

Zoe Dufour (b. 1990) is a sculptor who creates unconventional compositions that capture the powerful dance between the physical and the philosophical. “There is a strong dialogue between practice and thinking, a direct relationship between the hand and head,” the artist explains. “This balance is echoed everywhere in nature and is a constant source of inspiration. The potential for tactile, emotional, and physical connections among objects, space, people, and nature is what draws me to sculpture.”

Dufour continues, “Sculpting gives me a dynamic framework to engage with the world. My practice is a conscious study of nature, people, and animals, born of affinity, love, and curiosity. This study allows me to become more aware of my perceptions and biases so that I can better understand our world as it exists, in reality. As I sculpt, I am balancing intuitive response and rational assessment. Ultimately, I want to sculpt to create art suspended between how we experience the world and what we think we know about the world.”

Originally from Thailand, Dufour studied for five years at the Grand Central Atelier in New York City, where she learned to sculpt primarily in clay and to cast in bronze. More recently, she has been experimenting with ceramic sculpture, a medium she finds fascinating for its challenges and chemistry-based process. “The material science involved in producing ceramic work is much more rigorous than anything I’ve encountered in traditional sculpture,” she says. “Projecting results that will occur when you combine various clay bodies and glazes to particular temperatures and atmospheres in a kiln feels primal, magical, and scientific all at once.”

Illustrated here is “Ray,” a sculpture that shows a man surrounded by masked versions of himself, either whole or partial. Created in ceramic stoneware, 18-carat gold luster, and steel, these gilded reflections represent the gradations of influence on a person’s identity over a lifetime. “In geometry,” the artist notes, “a ray is part of a line that has a fixed starting point but no end point. One example is a sun ray. ‘Ray’ was sculpted as I thought about the many iterations of self we pass through from birth, and the many outside influences that shape us in our indeterminate lifetime.”

In 2021, Dufour was sculptor-in-residence at the national historical park dedicated to Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) in Cornish, New Hampshire. For the better part of six months, she worked on ambitious life-size compositions while studying the artistry of one of America’s greatest sculptors. Following are some of the pieces she worked on while there:

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