Art Themes in Bellingham Sculpture Collection
Outdoor Art Walk at WWU Emphasizes Nature, Academics and History
Apr 14, 2009
For over 60 years Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, has invited artists to design sculptures on their campus grounds as part of a public artwork walking tour. They now own one of the top ten university art collections in the United States.
WWU has always allowed the artist to choose the location where their piece will be displayed. This opportunity has made the use of land a very important theme to many of the artists.
In the 29 sculptures situated around the campus there are three major themes: Man and Nature, Man and Learning, Man and History. Many of the sculptures are meant to be participatory so the viewer can walk through, sit on and even climb to achieve higher understanding of the artwork. The themes represented through the sculptures are integral to understanding the artist’s meaning.
Man and Nature
In 1969 Isamu Noguchi decided to locate Skyviewing Sculpture in the centre of Red Square where Miller Hall is located. He designed the sculpture in the shape of a black cube, tilted, with cutouts on three sides. The 12,000 pound steel sculpture rests its three points lightly on brick piers appearing weightless. The top point rises towards the clouds.
The viewer is invited to go inside of the sculpture and look up to the sky with the cube. In Clark-Langager’s Sculpture in Place: A Campus as Site it says gazing towards the sun through the open circles plays on the Japanese philosophy of sun and creation. Being part of the sculpture, Noguchi shows man is center of creation.
In Bruce Bassett’s Portrait of an Artist Noguchi explained, “Man’s involvement with nature requires that he leaves his imprint there too, because he is part of nature too.”
Man and Nature is also shown in Meg Webster’s untitled copper planter and Lloyd Hamrol’s Log Ramps.
Man and Learning
When artist Tom Otterness sat at Haskell Plaza in 1999 he spent the day drawing sketches and watching students mingle around the landscaped area. In the end he came up with Feats of Strength: small bronze figures holding and moving boulders while others sleep or sit cheerfully in various spots around the plaza.
Otterness explained in Sculpture in Place that he wanted to express three layers in his sculptures. The first layer is the landscape that was made before the sculptures. The next layer is a semi-reality where a fictional story takes place between the bronze characters. The last layer is the students and faculty walking or sitting by.
Otterness emphasizes the small versus the overwhelming and laziness versus intelligence in his work.
The theme for Man and Learning can also be seen in the large red steel tribute, For Handle by Mark di Suvero and Bruce Nauman’s stair sculpture Stadium Piece.
Man and History
Landscape artist, Nancy Holt, decided her artwork would be specific to Bellingham as a seaport community. In that regard her 1977 sculpture Stone Enclosure: Rock Rings is mapped around the celestial layout of the North Star, an important calculation for coastal navigators.
In Sculpture in Place it says the circular holes are compared to points on a compass and offer a horizontal view of the landscape across from the track field.
The viewer can walk in and around the 40-ft and 20-ft diameter rings. The rock sculpture looks like a small, old castle.
Holt said she decided to place it near Robert Morris’ Steam Sculpture so its mist would flow over her work creating a “dreamy, misty quality.”
Other themes on Man and History can be seen in local tale, Richard Beyer’s The Man Who Used to Hunt Cougars for Bounty and the more exotic India, by Anthony Caro.
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