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Title: Modern Totem Date: 2012 Medium: Masabi Granite, Indiana Limestone Dimensions: d40" x w40" x h122" Columbus Indiana Commission |
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With the design of the space between the visitors center and library
intending to be a place for gathering and a portal between two places that
very much are entwined with the essence of the Columbus Community, I thought
it important to gather inspiration from ideas and symbols that suggested just that.
Thinking back to when I attended college in the pacific-northwest, surrounded by landscape that had been very much affected by totemic themes and cultures, it was natural to draw inspiration from a totem. Totems have been a symbol of community, identity, kinship, not just in the pacific-northwest, but also in many totemic cultures across the globe, and a symbol that I believe to be perfect for a space designed to exemplify those traits. Though the actual sculpture does not contain any figurative representations of animals or plants and things of that nature, it does contain what I would like to think of as a living and breathing essence within the stone, the expanding and contracting curves, the spiraling edges, and the feel of asymmetrical changes when walking around it. This is a form inspired by much of the architecture and artwork that is already right here in Columbus, three of these works can be already seen standing here on this site: The I.M. Pei Columbus Library, a building I've always been fascinated with since my child-hood, the Eliel Saarinen First Christian Church, and finally one of my heroes within the sculpting world, Henry Moore's "Large Arch". |
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