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.

WP3: Pre Write 3

The sculpture I have been working with is titled "Arch Falls". The sculptor is Bryan Hunt, who was born in 1947. This sculpture came around in 1980-81. The substance used is bronze, which is the most common substance used in the sculptures around Sheldon Art Gallery.

Bryan Hunt is known for "gestural" bronze sculptures. Gestural meaning that it is able to communication without words. I would think that word would be common for most sculptors techniques because of the fact that sculptures don't commonly have words. He is found doing lots of waterfalls that convey the "ephemeral" effects of rippling, fluid surfaces in solid bronze. The word ephemeral means lasting only a short time which makes complete sense for this sculpture. Like stated in a previous blog, this sculpture catches one snapshot of a waterfall, reiterating Hunt techniques with his waterfall sculptures. This piece of art was originally modeled in plaster. We are able to see how Bryan Hunt worked the surface with his fingers while it was still wet in order to form the details of the water.

After knowing a little bit more information about the sculpture and its artist, not much has been altered for me. I was able to see the details and techniques before hand, but didn't know that it was previously done in plaster and all those details. It is interesting that this artist focuses his work on waterfalls. I would be interested to know if there is a particular reason for his doing so.

3rd Writing Post

Intensification. The most basic definition for the word intensification outlines exactly what it means, it make something more intense. When you think of a sculpture, it is kind of hard to think of it as intense. We would normally relate sculptures to the type of class period we had on Tuesday. I was out of town, therefore not in class on Thursday, but from what I understand the class was polar opposite from Tuesday. Therefore, we need to take time to think of our sculptures in a more intense way rather than subdued.

The first step is to think through our sculpture as an intensification of the object it represents. My sculpture is a waterfall, therefore, it intensifies a waterfall because you are viewing it as a stand still. There is no motion which is what a waterfall does, so it is a whole different kind of viewing when it is still. This sculpture also intensifies the movement and "fall" of a waterfall. It does the same for the "arch" of a waterfall. The imprints in the stone of the sculpture through the lines formed represent the rippling of the water. You wouldn't necessarily be able to see those lines when watching a live waterfall. The sculpture is almost a snapshot of a waterfall because it catches it just in one single second or movement.

The second step is to think through our sculpture as an intensification of an art object. This sculpture really allows you to view a waterfall as an art object because of a few things. One thing being, the substance used, bronze. That makes us focus even harder because it is not like we are looking at a blue painting- we don't automatically think of water when we see the bronze color. If it indeed were blue, or whatever color you consider water to be, we would be more prone to assuming it is a waterfall right away than we are when we look at a bronze stone. Also the fact that we can see the finger imprint that make it a water design ties in with the fact that it is an art object. You know that it took skill and technique to form the material so that it turns out representing a waterfall.

The third and final step is to think through our sculpture as an intensification of the natural environment in which it is found. Just the bare fact that this sculpture is outside intensifies that it is a waterfall because it is in a natural environment. Although not the precise environment it typically would be found in. I think it would still be able to be a waterfall sculpture if located inside of Sheldon or any art gallery for that matter, but it just makes it a little more realistic being placed outside.

It is interesting to be able to look and reflect on our sculptures in two complete opposite approaches, but I think that is all the better for making sure we are looking at every possible aspect of our sculptures and really digging deep with them.

John Cage Response

I can’t say I’ve ever thought of a class as a performance, but after Thursday’s class, I now see how that is so. Whenever anyone is speaking, the rest of the classroom becomes an audience. The teacher must prepare what they are going to do for the day and the students must be willing to obtain the information and focus. When someone wants the floor, the star of the show changes. When you take away the voices in a class, there is no real leader or person in control. Everyone is left to figure out for themselves what is going on. There is still a message being portrayed, but its up to you to find out what it is. When we had our silent class I was clueless as to what was going on, so I had to make the class what I wanted to make it. This can all be related to analyzing sculptures.

Sculptures are like a silent classroom or performance. They are giving off a message that the audience members usually have to figure out on their own. Without knowing anything about the sculpture, we have to make up a story about it for ourselves. As in the classroom situation, there can’t really be a right and wrong when this is the case. We take a chance to examine the sculpture, consider its surroundings, look at it from different aspects and ultimately come up with an argument or purpose for the sculpture. It might be what the sculptor intended the audience on getting from it or it might be some different variation.

With my particular sculpture, it is crucial that it is located outside being that it is a waterfall. If it were to be located inside of Sheldon Art Gallery I would still give off the vibe of a waterfall, but it seems more realistic when it is outside in a natural environment. I would assume as a sculptor, they would want their piece of art to be as realistic as possible having that it is a sculpture.

When we think of “what something is not” in terms of a sculpture, we think about how they are not alive or real. They do not literally consist of streaming water but when we try to look at the sculpture with a realistic sense, it becomes more real.

We are given a lot of freedom with letting our minds form opinions and formatting reasons for things. When we are sitting in a silent classroom we make the class what we want to. When we are looking at silent, non moving sculptures we get to make a story up for them, but the context they are placed in and the ideas of “what they are not” are helpful to us when forming these opinions or stories.

WP3: Pre Write 2

For our third and final writing project this semester, we are now analyzing a sculpture rather than a picture or a comic. We are using sculptures located around Sheldon Art Gallery on the UNL campus. All of the sculptures are located outside the building in various areas. My particular sculpture is titled Arch Falls and it was sculpted by Bryan Hunt in 1980. Bryan Hunt is known for sculpting "waterfalls that convey effects of rippling, fluid surfaces in solid bronze." (Sheldon website)

Sculptures are a bit different to analyze then the other art objects we had previously studied. Most aren't in color so that takes away the discrepancy of the hue and brightness and saturation we could talk about when analyzing a photo. But similarly to our other projects, I first took time to just write down my first thoughts when looking at this particular sculpture. After this post, I will do some historical research on the piece and hopefully be able to figure out more of an argument for this sculpture.

After only hearing the title at first, I assumed it was some sort of waterfall, which I found out it was. When I got to Sheldon, I knew which sculpture was mine because I had looked it up online. I don't think I would have been able to look at it without knowing the title and be sure right away that it was representing a water fall. I was able to tell it was some sort of stone substance. To me it appeared to be a section of a water fall from the front view and an even skinnier section from the side view. I felt that it looked like water because of how the creator used their fingers possibly to work through the substance to form it. I don't quite understand why there's a slit of openness in the bigger chunk, it could just be a movement of the water. Also I'm not sure on why there is the separation between the big chunk and little chunk.

I don't feel like this sculpture really gives off an emotion, but maybe after knowing more of the meaning of it, it will make more sense. I think the sculpture is in the right sort of context that it is outside. That helps portray the fact that it is a waterfall. The visual hierarchy is the bigger piece of the waterfall because of its size. It stands out more. The color is the dark "sculpture" color. I feel like a lot of sculptures are this color. It is like a mix of black, brown, and gray. The bottom part of the sculpture gets clumpy, which I see it as the bottom of a water fall, like the rocks. When thinking back to the title, I'm not so sure on what the arch is referring to. The only thing I can think of is the formation of the start of a waterfall how it is kind of in an arch. The arrangement is made by the hole and the separation. The only sort of argument I've thought of thus far is that it can kinda be like a freedom of falling? Or a free falling?