WP3: Statement of Purpose

When you have something that is representing an object through means that it is not, its purpose is served in a different way. The sculpture I have been working with is titled "Arch Falls" and it is of a waterfall by Bryan Hunt. The twist about it though is that it is made and portrayed through everything that it is not.

A main element of a waterfall is its movement. But hello, a sculpture can't move! So how then do we still understand that it is representing a waterfall when it is the opposite of water, meaning no movement? We need to take a step back and think about why we consider this a waterfall and how that came to be our perception of the sculpture. There are contours in the sculpture's format showing the techniques the artist used to make the bronze appear as water. With knowing the title and taking a first glance at the sculpture, it is evident that it is a waterfall. Another part is that this waterfall is separated in two parts, when we know that a real life waterfall is one continuation. The only reasoning I have for this doing is that there needs to be two parts for the sculpture to be able to stand up. We know that if a normal waterfall is having any separation it is usually due to a rock in the middle, not an open air space like this sculpture has that you can literally walk through. Another element to this sculpture is that it has been placed outside and against a white marble building. It is outdoors in a natural setting which is where a waterfall would be, but not on a grassy lawn. Also, a white building is not usually behind a moving waterfall to highlight its contours and design, but rather a blended in mountain or some similar scenery.

Every waterfall has a source, except for if its a sculpture. This waterfall starts in the middle of the air. It just becomes. It is crazy that all these things that are making up the sculpture are the exact opposites of what a waterfall really is, but yet everyone that looks at this after knowing the title and everything, considers it to be a waterfall. This whole concept connects us to the John Cage videos. A performance of music was made out of silence. This is similar in that a waterfall is made out of stillness.

I think all of this follows yet contradicts my original thought or purpose of this sculpture representing the idea of "free falling". It is free falling in the sense that it is free to be what it wants in this situation and it is coming from nowhere so there is no source it is meant to follow. To say it is falling is where it gets tricky. It is technically not moving but we can see from the arch the movement it would have if it were actually water falling down a mountain.

When working with this sculpture, we are able to figure it out through everything that it is not.