♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Martha Longenecker: In my opinion, Niki de Saint Phalle is the leading woman artist that has come out of the 20th century.

Niki's work is actually useful art.

Much of it is sculpture for children to play on, to crawl through, to touch, to experience, or chairs to sit in, marvelous snake chairs or lamps and flower vases.

It's art for life.

Niki de Saint Phalle: Where's the big skull?

Oh, there it is.

I had a smaller one in the show that Martha gave me at the Mingei Museum, and also it's traveled.

Marcelo curated a lot of my shows in South America, and it was the most popular piece, wasn't it?

The children love it, because it's only us adults that are afraid of death.

For them, it's mysterious.

Martha: The new sculpture that Niki de Saint Phalle has just made for the convention center is called "Coming Together."

Niki: Like, I really--I'm very excited about this, but also I don't really know what it's gonna look like.

That's what's very exciting too.

Lech Juretko: Oh, it's gonna look beautiful.

That's for sure.

Niki: No, but I mean what-- you know, what it's gonna be like with the sunlight, with the buildings behind it, with the sea, you know, the whole thing.

No, no, the eye, that was really good.

That's that very expensive one from the Naza, isn't it?

Lech: Yeah, yeah.

Niki: How much does it cost?

Lech: Five dollars square inch or something like that-- or more.

Just to cover this is about $200.

Niki: Well, I think I'm the most expensive sculptor alive because I'm using all these materials.

But since I'm making a good living, all my--instead of having five cars and a Jaguar or something, I'm--you know, I prefer putting it all back into my work.

They go once a year to Tucson, and they buy piles and mountains of rocks.

He can show you his bags of treasures.

It's like Ali Baba in his caves.

Niki: What color do we have on the model?

Lech: You've got--no, I--it's this side up here and this side.

This is the color.

Niki: It was that green.

Lech: And you wanna-- inside you want a mirror?

Niki: Yeah, I like the idea of the mirror because it'll kind of pull the eye through.

Niki: And I think, to be a sculptor, it's very different than being a painter because a painter, he's there just with his canvas alone, and a sculptor has to like problems.

There's problems every day.

Lech: You see--you will see something like this.

Niki: I like the texture, but I'm afraid this isn't gonna be luminous enough.

But, as you said, we could take it outside and put a sheet of white paper and see how it'll reflect in the sun.

Niki: I mean, it's total immersion for everyone who's working in it, and like Zaidir or Marcelo, and, you know, if they fit, they fit.

Niki: Oh, yeah, that's gonna look great.

That's it, Lech.

'Cause you see, really, all those colors are gonna shimmer.

Niki: It's at the same time very modern because we're using computers, but it's Egyptian style too because each rock has to be put in by a person.

Each thing has to be fitted in, as you can see, to follow the movement.

These are extraordinary.

It's petrified wood.

What I like is that if somebody's interested, you know, in texture, you can touch it, and you can spend a long time discovering different things.

I love the fossils.

I mean, I can look at every single one of them.

And then these look like a--quicksilver.

What is the name of them, Lech?

It's glass.

Of course, the combination looks good with the silver and everything.

What do you like best, Lech?

Lech: I like the the pinky one from Madagascar because it comes only from Madagascar.

You can have something like this from another country, but not this kind of pinky, not the bright color like this.

Niki: I love this--all these greens and everything.

Lech: It's really by-- Niki: There's something magic.

Lech: By not thinking what you do, you really make up kind of lines with-- Niki: That's right.

Just by doing it.

So Tuesday's the big day.

What time do you think the first one will get down?

Lech: I think we'll be around 10, 11.

11?

Closer to 11, because this is overhyped, and they're gonna have to drive the special routes.

Niki: And are they gonna put it up right away, or are they gonna bring everything down there?

Lech: They have to put this first.

They have to bolt it.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Niki: It looks mysterious.

Well, I tell you what--what the surprising thing for me is, is how it looks, you know, placed in its home--is the actual what you see behind it.

Like, from here, we see this.

It's--you can't imagine all these things, you know?

At least I can't.

♪♪♪ Niki: We use a lot of iridescence here that we haven't before.

They really look good, I think.

You see, like, on the nose there, the kind of shimmering?

♪♪♪ Niki: And I guess, this afternoon, they're gonna put the-- speaker: The crown, yeah, that's gonna happen in the next couple of hours.

♪♪♪ Niki: We were a little bit afraid that the mirrors might be too blinding, but they don't seem to be, even in the big light.

So that's great.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Niki: I just love working in the--in a team.

And if you're doing sculpture, you have to, and certainly on a monumental scale.

speaker: [speaking foreign language] speaker: [speaking foreign language] Niki: How do you say the word exactly in English?

In French you say [speaking foreign language] "Artisanal," does that exist?

This is--there's a big component of artisanal work in it, and so everybody has to be good.

Otherwise, it won't work.

♪♪♪ Martha: Coming Together will become an icon of San Diego.

The whole world will come to see that, just as they go to the Stravinsky Fountain at the Pompidou Center in France and as they go to Switzerland or they go to Japan or they go all over the world to see her sculpture.

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