For RISD alumn Will Reeves, art appreciation is like a petting zoo. Why watch it on TV when you can kick up some dust and feed it from your hand? This Saturday at Foo Fest, Reeves will put this philosophy to work in the form of a elephantine medicine ball: think Jupiter Jump meets large-scale art installation. Read on for his thoughts on experiencing life and humanity through art-making and collaboration.

Q. You finished your undergraduate studies at RISD a few years ago.
What did you find particularly interesting about this experience?
A. RISD was an amazing experience. To be in a place that attracts so many skilled, talented, driven, and thoughtful individuals, to work under such inspiring and challenging faculty, and to have access to innumerable facilities and the opportunities the school offers was ... incredible. I mean, it is utterly exhausting and tough, but now I have a clear view of my passions and the set of skills to support that dream. RISD isn't without its faults, but its greatest gift is this instilled sense of confidence that any notion I dream I can make into reality. As I pursued my endeavors and saw everyone around me chase their passions just as fanatically, I found myself continually surprised and reassured that "anything is possible."

Q. What are some of the challenges you have faced as an artist since
you left art school?
A. Well, no one told me that the pursuit of being a studio artist, and in particular a sculptor, would be so hard. I mean, for my practice I need wood working equipment, metal working equipment, metal casting facilities and large space to create my ambitions, and most of all it is crucial that my hands play a major role in the act of making. So I'm not out sourcing components, but crafting almost all elements of the work. It's been exceedingly difficult to find resources, purchase and set up equipment, find space, and make time to make the work. The studio has become just as much of a project as any of my pieces, and perhaps the greatest challenge I ever faced. If I had known before I jumped into this, I probably would have never started, but I didn't want to sacrifice or make alterations to my work based on a lack of facility. I wanted to preserve the content and continue to pursue my interests through these materials and processes I loved, so it seemed like a worth while sacrifice. I've made tons of mistakes... too man. But I'm hopeful that in the end it would have been worth it.

Q. For the Foo Festival you are presenting a Giant Medicine Ball.
Can explain how this project came about?
A. Haha, it's funny to call it a Giant Medicine Ball. It is a large encumbering spherical polyhedron made of Pilates exercise balls tethered together, and I am hopeful that people will interact with it in an aerobic way; pushing, rolling, climbing, playing. I guess the idea came out to my interests in mathematics, my obsession with Sisyphus, and a goal of creating a highly interactive, durable, mobile sculpture that really transforms the viewer from a passive participant to an active and integral part of the sculptural experience. Fundamentally, art objects are just that: objects. So I'm excited to create something thats implied life is a single day, without an implied importance and which will probably be handled more than most works in museum collections in that short moment. To me, that's really touching an audience. To create an experience that becomes art, rather than it being pre-constructed as an art experience. And nothing is more meaningful than allowing that tangible experience of an object. Is art really real if you can't feel it? I have had more moments that affirm my existence being at a play ground or at the park than I have at a museum, personally.

Q. Have you done other projects before that were, like the Giant
Medicine Ball "mobile, interactive, cleanable, soft, and massive"?
A. Oddly enough, no. I like to make works or create circumstances that allow for communal interactions like this. I've constructed forty foot walls and held graffiti workshops for 40 people and displayed the murals. I've held celebrations surrounding my works like my "Wiz and Wiener" party where I invited my twenty residents and their friends to come and urinate on one of my bronze pieces to patina it, and then cook hot dogs on the forge.... Or when we lit a ceramic bust soaked in kerosene on fire and held an arm wrestling competition on an anvil... and cooked hot dogs... but short of some public ironworks I've done, I never had the opportunity to make something at this scale for an open community. I'm thrilled!

Q. Are there elements of social concerns that have found their way
to your work?
A. Yes. I don't make work in a bubble, and I'm always thinking of and responding to my circumstance and those of my friends and seeking to express my view of the world. I look at our post industrialized consumer American culture and have deep questions about how, as a society, we've so distance ourselves from our hands... why television shows like "Modern Marvels" and "How It's Made" or whatever becomes, for some, their greatest interaction with material. We've become a disembodied culture; completely separating our heads from our bodies. I seek to use my hands and finely craft objects that are imbued with the history and tradition of a material, speak of an era, or use industrial processes. I want to provoke others to ask "how" and "why." America was once what the modern world's China or India is, and yet we so quickly forget that this nation's origins of wealth were our abundance or resources, our indomitable drive, and our innovative thinking! That's why I love Providence and Fall River. These cities embody the poetry of abandonment. How many generations of people did it take to tame the land, or rather build these mills, and man their operations? This lack of awareness and the passivity of American culture are leading cause or our current predicament, in the environment and economics... so whether it is the crux of the work, or a passive theme that is pervasive through out a body of work, these are a few of the my thoughts as I create.

Q. You have a very large studio in the area of Rumford. Can you talk
about some of the plans you have with the space?
A. Well I've started a collaborative artist resource center called "The Wurks" located at the Phillipsdale Landing, just over the Henderson Bridge on the river in Rumford. My goal is to create an environment where artists can come and have access to both facility and people as resource and create their dreams. I seek to create a space where a sculptor can work alongside designers, musicians, writers and inventors, and the bounds of definitions falter and we are able to just be, dream, think, and make! I've practically killed myself in pursuit of tools, and I would very much like to share what I've acquired with others. I don't see a reason for others to have to struggle as much as I have. The hope is if we band together, we all can grow. No man is an island, they say, so why should we cling on to the stigma of the artist toiling alone in his studio, especially now? We have a core group of ten individuals that share a full wood shop, machine shop, blacksmith studio, and band room. I have plans to create a media lab and alternative gallery space.

Q. What is it about the collaboration with other artists that interests you particularly?
A. The thrill of Adventure! To meet new people and perchance, for a moment, glimpse things in a new light. What can you expect? Did you ever think you'd be dumpster diving for casters and finding yourself lost in a warehouse of furniture, and wandering through steelyards playing "what is that!", roaming demolition sites scavenging material, or sharing a bed with make shift puppets poking out of the frame with 15 of your peers hovering over you? Who knew? That to me is the exciting part. You just don't know what you'll create, who you'll meet, or what the story you'll live to make is.

Q. What other interests do you have outside of creating art?
A. Haha, I'm not sure. Love sports. I play ice hockey, and go for runs... and whether or not I enjoy it, I find my self moving stuff all the time... timbers, tools, people, furniture, trash, scrap... towing cars that are towing trailers...I guess rigging is now a hobby. But mostly I'm solely focused on the pursuit of making art, and I find that more than captivating.