Overview

American sculptor James Surls may very well be an artist at an end of an era — his venerable methods for creating sculpture head toward extinction as computer design further infiltrates the visual art world. The documentary The House, The Hand and the Hatchet follows Surls through 2015 as he tirelessly works to create new large-scale bronze, steel and wooden sculptures and travels around the world to install them. The film depicts not only a slice of Surls’s life but also a glimpse into the psychology behind his monumental artwork and the legacy he hopes to leave behind.