Handling the 2,000-pound boulders—
Zivic says they invariably arrive at 6 a.m.
via tractor-trailer-proved a challenge be-
yond the scope of ordinary craftsman’s tools.
To reduce the boulders to manageable size,
Zivic requires the services of an Albany
stonecutting firm specially equipped to
move and cut massive pieces of ore. “They
have platforms on railroad cars,” says Zivic,
“and a truck with a boom arm that can pick
up three or four tons.” With a six-foot-diam-
eter diamond-embedded saw, the stonecut-
ter rough-cuts boulders to his specifications;
Zivic then transports the table-size chunks—
each weighing several hundred pounds—
back to his property where he uses power
tools to further shape them into functional
sculptures. (Small chunks get transformed
into tabletop sculptures and bookends.) For
most of the year, Zivic uses the back of a
flatbed truck as an open-air work platform.
The coal pieces can then be driven back up
the hill to his studio (a long, low, retrofitted
chicken coop), where honing (which pro-
duces his preferred soft satin finish) and/or
high polishing is done. (The polished sur-
faces are virtually dust-free and therefore
99 percent clean to the touch.) Each of the
finished tables is a unique form—some or-
ganic, others more rectilinear in shape—and
each displays the veining and fissures charac-
teristic of coal, a sedimentary rock formed
over eons from fossilized plants. Zivic em-
bellishes some pieces with pools of molten
pewter or tin; or, in some instances, he
makes “doilies” by splattering molten metal
on a cold surface, where it hardens. The
doily is attached to the coal as a powerful
graphic element akin to a Pollock-esque
gestural brushstroke.
Zivic prizes coal, perhaps the most mun-
dane material on earth, for it’s very non-pre-
ciousness. He feels there’s a certain virtue
in avoiding trendy—and often endangered—
woods, like wenge, which are often touted
in contemporary interiors. “I’ve processed
50 tons of coal so far,” he says, reflecting
that while he can’t call himself “green” ex-
actly, he’s at least saved the earth from the
polluting effects of coal that otherwise might
have been burned for fuel. He has also cre-
ated an astonishing body of work evocative
of the great stone-carver artists he admires—
Noguchi and Brancusi among them—but
unique in concept and material.*
Andrea DiNoto last wrote for this magazine
about the ceramic artist Kathy Erteman.
Opposite:
A sculptural coal table
by Jim Zivic honed to
a smooth finish, in the
Ralph Pucci showroom
in New York City.
Top:
Boulders of coal being
taken from Zivic’s prop-
erty to a stonecutting
facility.
Middle:
An open-air work plat-
form holding chunks
of coal that Zivic shapes
into tables using power
tools.
Below:
Finished coal table to
which Zivic has added
a pour of molten pewter.
Jim Z ivic prizes the mundane m aterial ofhis functional sculpture
fo r its very non-preciousness.
www.journal-plaza.net & www.freedowns.net
fcb/mario american craft 031
