Hassan Khoury on Weight and Balance

When Hassan Khoury speaks about sculpture, he rarely begins with materials. He begins with gravity.

Every object in a room has a relationship with weight. Most of us stop noticing it because the relationship feels stable. Hassan's work asks us to notice it again. A stone appears ready to fall. A steel form seems lighter than it should be. The eye searches for certainty and finds something less comfortable instead.

Balance, he says, is most interesting when it appears temporary. Perfect stability leaves little to discover. Slight instability keeps the viewer alert.

Many of his sculptures begin not with a sketch but with a question. How much tension can a form hold before it stops feeling calm? How little support can an object have before it appears impossible?

The feeling of equilibrium

Looking at Hassan's work, you become aware of your own body. You shift your weight from one foot to another. You lean closer. You instinctively test the balance of things around you.

This reaction is not accidental. Sculpture exists in the same physical world as the viewer. It occupies space rather than depicting it.

The result is work that feels less like an image and more like a conversation between object, room, and body.

Interview · December 2025

"People think balance is the absence of tension," Hassan told us before we left. "I think balance is what tension looks like when it finds its place."