Blacker than Night

Von Rydingsvard is primarily a sculptor of wood who has worked with the same cedar material for nearly 45 years. These works draw on her childhood experience of sparsely-furnished refugee camps in Germany, constructed largely of rough-hewn wood. Through gluing cedar blocks together and carving away the edges, her sculptures feel sinuous and full of tension and energy. Unflinchingly devoted to cedar wood even after developing an allergy to it, Rydingsvard’s commitment to the material informs her work. She says, “It’s always telling me what it needs to do, and I think that I’m trying to tell it what I want it to do.”