October
24, 2003
Outdoor
Sculpture Brings New Awareness to Campus
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Photo:
Fred LeBlanc
Sculptor
DeWitt Godfrey (left) working with Bob Riddle, MHC art museum
preparator, and Alexandra Bonomo '05
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As you walk up the path between Eliot House and
the Art Building, you might notice a new structure. Emerging from
beneath the bridge that provides access to the third floor of
the Art Building is a large flexible tube of rusted steel, which
was created by DeWitt Godfrey, an internationally recognized sculptor
known for his bold outdoor installations. "My work is very
involved with context, environment," Godfrey said. "Place
affects the way it behaves. It will change shape over time. It's
very dynamic, always changing. It will move when the wind blows
or someone touches it."
Godfrey is pleased with the site selected for
his work. "It's one of those forgotten spaces on campus,"
he said. "Good public art changes the way you think about
spaces. People don't notice their environment until it's changed."
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Photo:
Fred LeBlanc
Brook
Tremper FP and associate professor of art Joe Smith securing
steel bands of sculpture
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Joe Smith, associate professor of art and a sculptor,
enlisted the help of students in his advanced sculpture class
to assemble the piece. "It's hands-on work," Smith said.
"It requires nuts and bolts, literally, to put together."
Smith designed the first part of his course around the experience
of assembling the sculpture on site. "The students see how
a gigantic piece of sculpture gets put together. They see the
steps to go through physically and also the ambition and the organizational
skills it takes to bring such a piece together. When you make
work the size of DeWitt's, the problems of putting it together
increase geometrically." Assembling the work will be an ongoing
project; eventually there will be two more tubes, both smaller
and stiffer than the first.
Godfrey, who teaches at Colgate University, has
been on the faculty of both Mount Holyoke and Amherst colleges.
He was on campus last week to speak and to supervise assembly
of the piece. "Often students experience art at a distance,
usually in a gallery," he said. "But this is real. It's
fun for me to talk to them about it, to see them learn."
Entitled Driggs Sculpture (after the street address
of the Black & White Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, where
it was first displayed), Godfrey's work is the first piece of
art brought to campus for the College's outdoor sculpture project.
Like PULPIT, a sculptural installation now in Abbey Chapel, the
Godfrey piece will be on campus temporarily.
"Temporary pieces are a great way to introduce
the community to outdoor sculpture," said Marianne Doezema,
director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum.
Doezema acknowledges that the two works are "challenging,"
and said she anticipates negative as well as positive response
to them. "That's healthy, and we are looking forward to the
opportunity to discuss many of the issues that are raised when
largescale works of art are placed on grounds that are shared
by the community," she said. A notebook will be posted in
the art museum to receive comments, and an open community forum
will be held on October 30 at 4 pm in room 220 in the Art Building
to discuss the two works.
Doezema will use a grant from the College's Innovation
Fund to bring sculptors who are candidates for the first permanent
outdoor sculpture to campus. The outdoor sculpture committee,
which comprises faculty, staff, and students, is meeting this
semester to select candidates, who will be brought to campus spring
semester to talk about their work and interact with students.
Anyone interested in participating in the committee's work should
attend the open forum or contact Doezema.
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