Many Peaces: An Interview with Jim Needham, Artist

Symposium Moon, © Jim Needham

Can you describe your artwork for us?

The sculpture seen in this photograph is one of the “rockstacks” which I have been making for nearly twenty years. These rockstacks by and large consist of two or more natural stones, placed in proximity to or balanced on top of each other. They are a composition of separate elements brought together in one voice.

Working with and in response to the materials at hand, I take one stone, just as I have found it, and put it on another. As I listen to the stone, it becomes a natural practice, a meditation. Touching the stone, I understand that each has its own unique qualities, its individual strength which I use in making the placement as I build the sculpture.

Tell us about the piece, Many Peaces.

I conceived of Many Peaces in 2004 while at Montserrat outside of Barcelona, Spain. I was participating in an event held by the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions, bringing together hundreds of religious and spiritual leaders to find solutions to critical issues facing the world, including religiously motivated conflict.

I imagined the creation of a web of hopefulness, rockstacks made by individuals at such gatherings commemorating the many paths to peace. We recognize that a rockstack is constructed of individual stones and I see a correlation here with conflict resolution in that they are both comprised of individual voices coming together as one. My hope is to build a web of many sculptures, of Many Peaces, as a collection of monuments acknowledging the successes in bringing individuals and communities together in search of inclusive resolutions which bring peace, and balance, into our lives.

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Jim Needham is a photographer and sculptor whose artwork has been shown and collected internationally.  His sculptures can be seen at Gravity Garden in the Carmel Highlands, California. See and read more about this work at www.rockstacker.com.

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