Going Viral with Inventive Sculptures: Benjamin Pochurek

Actually, today's one, I really hope you're going to be watching rather than listening to, because I'm here with sculptor Benjamin Pater and his sculptures. I, I feel like I, I've got a whole little family around me here that Absolutely. It's really pretty wonderful. Thank you for bringing them and, and welcome And thanks for having me. We originally learned about you because you, you, you got a little bit famous there for one of those sculptures that went into the Portland Museum of Art. Right. Let's, let's start with our little conversation about that. Yeah. That sculptures, it's titled Floor Lung. It was intended to be a entry piece for the Title Shift award, which was a climate change themed art exhibit for, for youth artists like myself to create art pieces of any medium representing in some way or another climate change or climate change impacts. And I chose to utilize kind of my personal art style of like incorporating wood and metal, um, and making it personal to me. And also this kind of unique idea of what, like a post climate change world would look like. You know, that, that did fairly well with, uh, pro and Press Herald and also with the, with the Title Shift Award. Well, what's notable about this sculpture is that it also incorporates this, this living thing, this, this air plant technically, I guess. But there's a real meaning behind that for you For sure. The, um, it's, it's the first time I've ever incorporated something alive into my, into my art. Most of this stuff is like wood, which I guess you can call it live, but it's, it's cut wood and just cold metal. And it was this, this kind of element of vulnerability or softness that I don't often incorporate into my work. Um, and I, I used the air plants for that, and it was this, this idea that the air being withdrawn from the air plants is sustaining this life, this, this figure that I, that I represented. And also using that opportunity that that extra life that he's receiving from the plant, he's taking that energy to foster younger plants and, and potentially sustain himself in the future. And it's, it's that kind of hopeful yet kind of terrible, um, circumstance that he's in that, that, um, a lot of people find pretty powerful in, in moving His posture. Uh, reminds me of the thinker. Right. And did you have that in mind? Or? Most of my stuff kind of has that arched back kind of focused like either like, like, uh, protecting or just solely isolated on some, some circumstance so that his posture necessarily, like he's regarding it very intimately and closely, but he's also huddling it in, in this, in this manner that kind of protecting it from the outside and just giving that his, his, his life depends on the life of those plants. That kind of incorporating that element into it was, uh, my goal. Yeah. You're describing something that's really common and really human. Right. And, and the work I do as a doctor, when people come in and they tell me they have neck and back pain, it's often, you know, they just, it's, yes. It could be just that they're looking at their phone or their computer all day long. Sure. But, but also there is some element of kind of protecting their heart and protecting that that vulnerable side of themselves and and what you're describing really is a pretty significant vulnerability. Absolutely. Yeah. In, in, in, in a way that is his heart, that is his, his existence is that that planter that he, that he's holding in his lap. And I, I just hope to kind of represent that the, this fundamental, you know, like necessity of its existence because without it, the figure representing humanity would not exist. So I'm glad that that, uh, got across. You also have this piece that, um, where somebody is leaning over looking at a flower, and it's not a living flower, but it's obviously, it's symbolizing mm-hmm. a flower, and yet there's some sorrow and some pain. Absolutely. In this, describe this piece for Me. So this piece is called Defender, and it was inspired directly from the, the war in Ukraine as I was watching the, the news coverage of the, the, the bombing of Snake Island when that first happened. And my first response was kind of to say, to show my advocacy for Ukraine and, and show my support and looking around me, I saw a bunch of other people doing that same thing, and it, it felt like my voice in the matter, my, my, my stance on the whole issue would be minimalized if it was to be like, say, like changing my Instagram bio to like, like glory to Ukraine with the Ukraine flag or something like this. So I decided to do something a little bit more personal, a little bit more individual, and create this, this sculpture called defender, um, of a figure representing Ukraine as a, as a whole or as an individual Ukrainian soldier, um, given the, the yellow arm band protecting the Sunflower, which is the national flower of Ukraine. And he's supporting himself with his right hand on a pile of rubble that, or, or just destruction that the Russians have, um, brought over to, to Ukraine. And on his back are these little plates of armor that have been severely warped and kind of destroyed. One of them's by his feet haven't fallen off. And it's showing his, again, that that same posture of like protection and just nurturing, um, in a way towards this, this, um, this fly representing like the, the entity in the message of Ukraine at the moment. It also, for me, it evokes hope in a sense that if he's able to defend and he's able to protect, then there is a possibility for the future. Absolutely. And with every project I make something new, I always, I always incorporate a new element into this. And this, for this one, it was color. Um, I, I've never painted any, I'm not, I'm not a painter. I, I don't do a lot of, um, like colorful things. A lot of it's just brown and, and silver or just kind of monotone, but this vibrant yellow, like in the, in the center of the, the sculpture does give off that sense of like light and, and hopefulness. And it's, uh, it's, it's really nice seeing that like, and you can, you can also see it as like, oh, this is so sad. Like, look at this person, like literally destroying himself to, to protect, uh, what he v what he values and, and holds dear. But you can also see like it is a very hopeful and promising, um, kind of sculpture. Is it important to be able to maintain some sense of hope as you're working with these very serious and significant topics? I think so, yes. Or you're just gonna get really sad working on these, these sculptures. But, um, with this one in particular, like, I'm very hopeful that that Ukraine will in some way or another prevail and either be like recognized always as Ukraine and or having, um, or having defeat defeated the Russians in, in the war. But this, this sculpture kind of shows where they are right now as like this, this struggle in this, this kind of, um, this tiredness that I'm, I'm sure many of the, the soldiers and volunteers still in Ukraine are, are facing. Yeah. I think this is something that I often, I often think about because my daughter's boyfriend was, was in Afghanistan not long before they pulled everybody out. And that was a war that lasted the entirety of his lifetime and my daughters Right. And when this first happened in Ukraine, I think it was easy for us to say, oh, well of course this couldn't have happened and it's gonna be over soon, but it's already been going on quite a while. Absolutely. It's so devastating. And the long-term impact, as we saw in Afghanistan right. Is really something we can't even begin to understand. Well, it's definitely a unique stance that we're in right now. Cause we're, we're viewing as a kind of a third party. Like while we are involved, um, in, in some ways in the war, we, we are kind of regarding it as more of this, this, we can, we can review it more as, as an outside event. Yeah. Not necessarily a domestic one. Um, and I think that's pretty dangerous. I, I've, I've been seeing less and less news coverage and what's going on in Ukraine while the war continues to rage on. And I understand people get distracted, but there's some things that I believe we need to hone our focus in. And this is, this is one of them. Tell me about this other piece. It, it looks as if this in this, I mean, I want almost that individual, cause it seems so human to me, but it is reaching for Something. This was made a while ago, um, for a school project. Um, and this was right after we finished our block on African literature at my old school. And the, the book that we were supposed to encapsulate with some sort of project, um, like either an essay or a poem or something, um, was, is nervous conditions. It's about a young girl's in living in Africa is, there's her struggle for, um, kind of getting an education, education equality, and just that, that kind of, um, opportunity equality, equality of opportunity. And it was showing this is, this is African CocaCola the base. So I, I figured it would be suiting for kind of like a pretty African themed project and it showing how to figure representing the girl or in, in the book directly or any kind of anybody facing this similar problem is rooted directly to her roots in her, in her circumstance that's disallowing her from reaching for this diploma representing like education success, things like this and how these existing measures and, and restraints are keeping them back and holding them down. What was the unique element in this piece? It was using paper. Um, and the paper that rep, the, the ribbon wrapped around the diploma, um, that was something that could have gone really bad, could have gone great, but I got it on first or second try. And that was just, um, something I haven't replicated because I think it's, I, I like it being individual to this, this, to this piece. Um, but it was also the first time I did a kind of a focused, um, figure like the, the, the figure was, the sculpture wasn't necessarily a larger, um, like I've made, I made, I've made other projects that were just a, a big staircase, for instance. And there was a little, little guy at the bottom, but the, the sculpture was a staircase. This was kind of the inspiration to start making the figures themselves, the the piece of art and not necesssarily in, in a accompaniment into the art. And, um, this inspired me to go on and make larger, larger sculptures and and whatnot. So this was kind of ground zero for me. I spoke with, uh, a fellow artist, Matt Barter mm-hmm. . And I know that you have a relationship with, right. Um, I love his work. His work is, is wood, but he does his own sort of sculpting, but also extremely unique and, and figurative in its own very unique way. What types of things when you get together with Matt mm-hmm. is what types of things do you talk about from an artistic standpoint? Right. Most of the time when I talk to Matt about my art, I usually have the art in my hands. And I'm walking through the, his door to his gallery and he's like, whoa, Ben, that's, that's, that's great. Like, let me know how I can help. And a lot of it's, we just, we, I'll go up to his workshop and he'll, he'll show me some materials he's not using or something that I think would be cool in. And we just, we'll throw ideas back and forth at projects that we're both working on at the time. And, you know, moving up from Florida, Matt was the first person like that my family met. Um, just stop stopping by his gallery and he's been just a total friend and ally ever since then. So we like Matt, we like his father, um, Philip, Philip Barter. Um, and they've both been huge inspirations towards my art and my kind of my artistic leaning towards like alternative, um, materials and just really everything that, that kind of got me into art. Philip just had his opening last night. Mm-hmm. , Portland Art Gallery, and it was really, it, it was truly, um, amazing to see the body of work, um, that was on display in the room in the main room. And it just, it struck me that this is somebody who's been doing very unique things for probably all his life. Absolutely. And you're embarking on that journey from this end of things. Mm-hmm. , have you learned any particular lessons from working with people who have been doing this a little longer than you? Um, one of the major ones, like with both Matt and Philip, they definitely have their own style of art. And while I don't seek to replicate it, cause I view it as their own, I think that they've both inspired me to fond my own style and stick with it. And I hope that I've done that. Uh, I think that, um, all the pieces I have can be identified as created by the same person, just with the way they, the way they look, just the, the mannerisms, the, the materials used. And it was that, that more of just becoming an individual artist. Not necessarily making art, but making your art was, was what they, um, they both succeeded to inspire me to do. What was it like moving up here from Florida? It was, it was exciting. Um, the, we didn't do it necessarily. We, we didn't have much, we don't have any family up here. We don't really have any friends when we first came up here. So it was just kind of a lifestyle change, like, let's do it kind of thing. So in Florida, the school I was going to was more sports driven and more, more like less, just didn't really embrace art the way the way Maine did. And once I got up here, I, I started playing around with, I think it was a hot glue gun. It was in some cardboard. I was like, oh, I can make some cool things with this. And that just really didn't satisfy this, this kind of urge I had to make something permanent and, and kind of profound. So I, I got, I think I bought some sort of, um, soldering iron, like something for like computers or something and played around with that a little bit and then eventually jumped to the welder where I taught myself how to weld. And I wouldn't, I would never have gone down that route if I hadn't moved to Maine with that, with this kind of artistic, um, pulling. And you ended up starting at one school in Maine and moving to a different school in Maine. And my understanding is that initially when you started doing your art at the first school, it maybe wasn't as appreciated as perhaps it currently is at the school you're at now. Sure. I mean, met Wayne Fleet right now and they've been incredibly supportive of everything I've done from the, like, the title shifts and the, the, the Press Herald interview. And I'm walking down the halls and, and teachers I don't even have classes with Will, will compliment my work and say, oh, I just read your article. That's, that's so amazing. And like, I'd love to see some more of your stuff. And just today as I was leaving, I, I, many teachers were wishing me good luck on this interview. I'm not, I don't know how they knew I was going, but they knew and their, their support and their, their kind of advocacy for me has been really, really helpful. Especially considering it's my first year and I'm dealing with all the first year stuff along with beginning my junior year. And, um, no, it's been an incredibly great experience at Wayne Fleet, Which is not to say that the first school you were at was, you know, it's not to say that that was a negative experience, it just was a different experience. And it sounds like the one that you've moved into is one that fits you better. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. You live in Freeport mm-hmm. . And the piece that is behind me is one that you've done actually kind of in concert with work that you have been doing for a while with a very well known organization. Right. Um, the Wolf snack community is, we're pretty close with that, um, family-wise, but they've re they reached out to me regarding some of my pieces I've made, I think it was the floral lung, which is the one they saw. They said, we'd love to display and auction off one of your pieces if you would, if you would like to, if we'd commission you to make one for us so we can, so we can sell it. And I worked on a piece called Path Maker and just kinda representing Wolf's neck, wolf's neck's alternative, um, way of going about agriculture and sustainably, um, farming and creating this sculpture using a lot of wire wood and just everything else I've, I've used in the past. And right when we were about the day we were supposed to, to drive it to Wolf's neck and give it to them to, to auction off my parents, um, they didn't wanna see it go. They kind of fell in love with it at the time. So they, they called really, they called up and said, we can't, we can't, um, we can't give this to you cuz we, we wanna see it in our house. Um, so they've, they've had their time with it now and it's gonna go back to Wolfs neck to be displayed, um, in the, in the near future. It's very nice of your parents to, to give up the, the the path maker family member. Absolutely. And it'll be hard for them, but I think they'll get over it. Yes. Well, as I've brought up on this show before, one of the benefits of working with artists and having art available to me is that I do a lot of art fostering. So the art comes in and, and we foster it for a little while and sometimes I want it to join us forever, but we're not the forever home and we have to let it go to the next forever home. So it's hard, but, but it's good. It's a good process. It is. That, that's a issue I face often when I, when I make a piece of work. Um, not like noncommissioned work like say like, um, defender for instance, like that was made not necessarily for me, but it wasn't made for anybody else. So if I were to give it to somebody, sell to somebody, it would definitely be more of a hard thing to do considering how long it's been in my house, how long I've been looking at it, things like that. It's also a, this represents a tremendous investment of your time and energy and kind of emotional commitment to do these pieces. I mean, they, they literally take hours and hours and hours of all of the, all of the above. Right? The, it's during the school year, it has been difficult to find the time away from school, like on the weekends to commit to doing art pieces. But I do my best to, to dedicate as much time as possible to, to these projects and get, get as many done as possible and just kind of spread my wings a bit with the time I have. But this summer is, is often when I do the most work and I can do the most work consistently and have like a scheduled dedicated time to, to each one of these projects. I'm, I'm interested in your choice of wood and metal because it's not an easy, well, wood maybe a little bit more so, but certainly metal having to use a soldering iron and do welding, I mean that it's pretty big commitment, maybe a little dangerous. It's certainly a lot of work. . Yeah. Um, the, the amount of times I've set myself on fire welding and, and, and, and, and like when you, when you start in, in involving wood and metal in welding, which is just extreme heat and electricity forcing its way through metal and con having wood and saw us be everywhere, a lot of stuff is often on fire, um, myself included. So it's definitely a dangerous activity to, to engage in, but I think the end goal is pretty awesome. And, and for my like choice and materials, I think that most of my stuff in my, just my collection of work incorporates some level of vulnerability as we were talking about before. And in that it could be really easy to create something, see out of clay and represent vulnerability, but it's, I I view it as more difficult to take a piece of metal, some familiar and just really like cold material and shaping it and welding it into, into a shape that we can all view as kind of objectively, not pitiful, for instance. And that that kind of emotional response and that the thought that goes into the fewer looking at my, at my work, um, it's definitely gratifying. You're a junior in high school now mm-hmm. at a new school. You've gotten a lot of, um, well-deserved attention for the pieces that you've done. It seems like, um, you're, you definitely are moving in a direction that's really consistent with the artists that you probably always have been and, and, and want to continue to be. Do you have a sense of what your future looks like in this area? I wanna incorporate either art or welding into anything I do. Um, in the future. I'm also really invested in politics, current events and things like this. So art college is definitely on the table, but I might go lean towards something more within the political realm. Um, in my free time. I'm also, uh, getting my pilot's license fairly soon. So like some sort of military engineer would also be an ab in a totally acceptable, um, job for me. But I, I, I love welding, I love creating, so I think incorporating elements like welding or woodworking into, into my, my career in the future will, uh, serve me well. I, I believe I understood at one point you, and maybe you, and hopefully still do, you were interested in going to one of the military academies mm-hmm. . So I have a brother and a sister who both went to the Air Force Academy, so Okay. I may have to put in a plug for the Air Force Academy considering you have this, this pilot background. But also I would tell you what's interesting, I really felt, um, in learning this about you, I thought of my brother Jeff, who is still in the Air Force, but he was a fine artist when he was in high school and he went on to become a pilot and then a doctor, and now he's a surgeon in the Air Force. But I think that the visual sense that he had as an artist, he's probably maintained that and applied it in really different and interesting ways throughout his career. Yeah, absolutely. When I, when I fly, there's definitely an element of like memorization and finesse and technique that goes into it, and I can absolutely imagine that that translates very easily into like being a surgeon or, or even flying, flying a jet plane or something like this. Um, but no, the military academies have definitely been appealing and just, you know, representing America, serving America, these things I've always been passionate about. It's also interesting to me to think about kind of this, this very distinct, um, these pieces. They're very solid, they're very grounding. I mean, there is some flexibility to them in the way that they're created, but when you fly, there's, it's very air and mm-hmm. , you're in the sky. And yes, there's a technical aspect of things, but I know having spoken to artists, um, or a cop who also has experience with flight and incorporates air into and flight into his pieces, that's, that's very different than the sort of the energetic feeling of the pieces that I'm seeing around me. Mm-hmm. , do you have a sense that you may at some point in the future incorporate more, more air, more light into your work? I think that when viewing the, the final product of like my work and just seeing the sculpture piece, like at its, at its end, it can seem very solidified and, and just absolute. But when I'm, when I'm working on it in the garage, there's definitely that, that light airy feeling that you're, you're talking about like when it comes to flying, um, this, I'll put my welding helmet on, put some music on and zone out, and I'll, I'll come out of it two hours later, say, wow, it's a lot of progress I've made. Um, so there's definitely this element of freedom and just enlightenment that goes into creating these things. While there's also a large risk that I has to be taken into consideration when listening to music and totally zoning out while welding, but I, I do my best to, to balance the two. Yeah. I mean it's, it's in both cases I can see being a pilot where you're up in the air and there's an amount, it's an element of danger to that right? Here you are setting wood potentially on fire while you're working on metal. There's a little bit of danger to that. And also there's a lot of energy around mm-hmm. , both of these processes. And, and even as we're talking, yes, the, the elements of the pieces, the wood in the metal are very grounding, but the sense of them, there is a sense of lightness and there is a sense, even as I'm looking at them, that, that they're more than, um, they're not as tethered as, as other metal pieces metal sculpture that I've seen in the past. Sure. And with, with my work, I always try to, with my newer pieces, I've always tried to create some element or some illusion of functionality with, with my work, whether that be adding like a cog at a, on a joint or creating some sort of spring mechanism that would look like it, it would allow for movement. And while everything is completely welded so it doesn't rattle around or, or make noise, everything's bolted together. I try to create some sort of Yeah. Like an, an illusion this could stand up and walk away. Um, and I I, I've been doing, I've been experimenting more and more with these kind of, these kind of, um, elements that I'm, that I'm talking about. Oh yeah. There's, there's no doubt in my mind that, um, if we were to leave the room and close the door behind us, right. That these, these ones would be, I, I say these guys, but I don't really know that there's a gender specifically assigned to them. But I, I have a strong sense that they'd be up dancing around, Hopefully. I, I don't know. I've never seen them get up, but, you know, they, they might, Anything's possible. Absolutely. Well, Benjamin, I have very much enjoyed this conversation. Me too. And I hope that I will have a chance to continue to see your work and reconnect within the artistic community. And, um, thanks for taking the time to come in and talk to me today, Aussie. Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. I've been speaking with sculptor Benjamin Patura and I know we're gonna actually see quite a bit of this individual in the future. He really does have wonderful sculptures. Uh, I can extreme, I can absolutely understand why his family does not wanna let go of them, but, but those of you who are interested can, can engage in the auctioneering process and maybe have one for your own.