Sculpture Commons^™

Minnie Adkins: Against The Grain, Minnie Adkins, Kentucky Folk Art Center

Kentucky Folk Art Center Exhibition Catalogs

2015 Kentucky Folk Art Center exhibition catalog of artist Minnie Adkins.

Avatar, Cyborg, Icevorg: Simulacra’S Scion, Guido E. Alvarez

Theses and Dissertations

I propose a theoretical framework that describes how avatars incorporate media as an inherent part of their nature and find a hosting body in cyborgs to navigate and spawn in media. I propose the birth of a new scion that combines avatar, medium and cyborg into a conceptual being that I call “ICEVORG.”

The ICEVORG expands beyond representation into the actual physical world by means of media transgression—more specifically, by the use of the Strange Loop also known as Metalepsis ICEVORG find an effective soil to thrive and interrogate our ideas of reality by means of iteration, expansion, fragmentation and …

Alienata Da'sensi: Reframing Bernini's S. Teresa, Andrea Bolland

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Ecstasy of St Teresa for the Cornaro Chapel (1647–52) is perhaps the artist’s most sensually charged creation, and the apparently physical nature of Teresa’s ecstasy is today even acknowledged in survey textbooks. Teresa herself opened the door to this reading when, in describing her spiritual ecstasy, she admitted that ‘the body doesn’t fail to share in some of it, and even a great deal’. Yet the balance between sense and spirit in the sculpture emerges somewhat differently if it is viewed (literally and figuratively) in context: as an altarpiece in a chapel where its presentation is structured …

Ejecta, Anthony Cervino, Shannon Egan

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Co-authored with artist Anthony Cervino, this book was produced on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name at CulturalDC's Flashpoint Gallery in Washington, DC. The book is comprised of several curatorial essays as well as fictional and personal reflections, and an in-depth interview to examine issues of parenthood, professional successes, personal tragedies, and larger art-historical contexts.

Expanding Eco-Visualization: Sculpting Corn Production, Jennifer E. Figg

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation expands upon the definition of eco-visualization artwork. EV was originally defined in 2006 by Tiffany Holmes as a way to display the real time consumption statistics of key environmental resources for the goal of promoting ecological literacy. I assert that the final forms of EV artworks are not necessarily dependent on technology, and can differ in terms of media used, in that they can be sculptural, video-based, or static two-dimensional forms that communicate interpreted environmental information. There are two main categories of EV: one that is predominantly screen-based and another that employs a variety of modes of representation …

Ua1b3/5 Cherry Statue Committee, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by the Cherry Statue Committee in the course of raising funds for and directing the creation of the Henry Cherry Statue by sculptor Lorado Taft. Records created include meeting minutes, correspondence, reports, financial records and dedication programs.

The Rescue, Donna Mazza, A. Mickle, Rebecca Corps, Tom Ansell, Daniel Kus

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Research Background : This public sculpture depicts the historic narrative of an 1897 sea rescue off Bunbury. Tensions in the story were highlighted in the design and demonstrate the contested nature of history. Sources are contradictory, with credit for rescuing the crew given to the ship's dog by one source, and local authorities by another. The project was won through EOI and proposal to City of Bunbury, who funded the work ($31,000). The research group comprised Dr Mazza (CI), and honours students with advice from sculptor, Alex Mickle, on production and installation. The design was endorsed by Director of Bunbury …

Portrait Of Hadrian, Risd Museum, Stephen Shaheen

Channel

Hadrian was emperor at the very height of the Imperial Period (117–138 CE). He was selected to rule the Roman Empire because of his personal skills rather than his ancestry. One of the most well-traveled and cosmopolitan Roman emperors, he made two journeys around the empire during his reign. He is remembered for his love of the Greek world, particularly its arts and architecture. Portraits of reigning emperors ensured that Roman citizens knew what their ruler looked like, and were widely distributed throughout the empire. This portrait of Hadrian would have been inserted into a carved bust and prominently displayed. …

Home On The Run, Risd Museum, Brian Chippendale

Channel

2006

Untitled Film Still, Risd Museum, A. Will Brown

Channel

When making his prints, animations, and light boxes, Ezawa looks for source images on the Internet, manipulates them, and distills them to their essentials. Untitled Film Still belongs to a series of works for which Ezawa appropriated several famous photographs in order to deal with the questions of why some images become icons and how one looks at and interprets imagery. It is a playful appropriation of Cindy Sherman’s photograph with the same title from 1978. Sherman’s seminal Untitled Film Still series was in fact single photographs in which a female character (always played by Sherman herself) is trapped in …

Saint George, Risd Museum, Sheila Bonde

Channel

Saint George was a soldier of the Roman Emperor Diocletian who accepted martyrdom rather than denounce his Christian faith. This carved and painted sculpture was likely to have been pulled or carried outdoors in religious processions commemorating his feast day, now celebrated on April 23. He was frequently depicted astride a horse, holding a shield and an upraised sword, symbols of both protection and sacrifice. During the Middle Ages, Saint George was the subject of widespread devotion, from Russia and Greece in the east to as far west as the British Isles. Perceived as defender of the Crusades and the …

Lucent, Risd Museum, Sebastian Ruth, Toots Zynsky

Channel

Toots Zynsky is internationally regarded as one of the most innovative figures in studio glass. Lucente is a vibrant example of her signature ‘filet de verre’ (net of glass) technique, in which she fuses thousands of intensely colored hair-thin threads of glass together on a flat surface and then allows them to slump into a bowl-shaped mold. The colors undulate and evoke feathers, flames, or woven textile designs. Zynsky’s glass-layering technique has a painterly quality unique for the medium. In Lucente, the exterior wash of green and yellow threads gives a misty appearance to the oranges and reds seen through …

Maternity Dress, Risd Museum, Deborah Johnson, Hilary Treadwell, Judith Tannenbaum

Channel

1966

Rock Head, Risd Museum, James Montford

Channel

One of contemporary art’s most compelling and elusive figures, David Hammons draws upon his identity as an African American for his sculptures, performances, and installations. He was also inspired by the 1960s Italian Arte Povera (Poor Art) movement with its use of everyday materials to create metaphorical imagery. Rock Head embodies a strikingly elegant human form with remarkable simplicity, roughness, and asymmetry. Reminiscent of both archeological remains and Brancusi’s Modernist ovoid heads, the smooth boulder is thatched with hair swept up from the floor of a Harlem barbershop. Hammons began using human hair from barbershops in the 1970s for installations …

Goddess Maat, Risd Museum, Gina Borromeo, Ingrid Neuman

Channel

This depiction of Maat appears to be cast in three pieces: the altar, the figure, and the feather. Smooth, highly polished surfaces contrast with the concentrated detailing of the feather, wig, broad collar, and openwork altar. The goddess embodying truth, balance, and proper action, Maat pervaded all aspects of Egyptian culture. Traditionally represented as a woman with an ostrich feather headdress, Maat here sits in a characteristic pose. Similar bronze figures of Maat suggest that this piece is incomplete, and was most likely part of a group composition in which the goddess was juxtaposed with a larger figure of the …

2014 Forces, Scott Yarbrough

Forces

No abstract provided.

Head Of Buddha Shakyamuni, Risd Museum, Gregory Schopen, Vazira Zamindar

Channel

The earliest images of Buddha are found in modern-day Pakistan at sites along ancient trade routes. The region once known as Gandhara was familiar to the Greeks as early as the fourth century BCE. Traces of their influence are visible in the classicizing features of this head of Buddha (top), combined with all the traditional attributes of Buddha—the skull protuberance, the spot or tuft of hairs between the eyebrows, and the elongated earlobes of ancient Indian nobility. The simplified and youthful facial features and the coiled knots of hair are typical of Gandharan representations. This head would probably have been …

Nostalgia And The Repair Of Place: A Nativity Scene In St. Peter's Square, Sarah Stanbury

English Department Faculty Scholarship

This essay explores the presepe, an important form of traditional religious Italian dioramic art depicting the Nativity. In particular, it examines the presepe designed by Francesco Artese as part of a broader reflection on Italian nativity scenes as imagined cultural landscapes and installation art.

The Hand Of God, Stephen Shaheen

Channel

Rodin’s The Hand of God has been viewed not only as a metaphorical representation of the creation of man but also as a commentary on the sculptor’s role as creator. The emblematic hand that emerges from a block of roughly hewn marble represents the Divine Creator forming the bodies of Adam and Eve interlocked in a primal embrace. In contrast to the figures’ slender, attenuated limbs, the sinewy hand was perceived by critics as that of a working man. Together, the well-defined hand and the ephemeral figures bridge Rodin’s interests in both realist and symbolist art. One of three known …

The Italian Presepe: Cultural Landscapes Of The Soul, Sarah Stanbury, Margot Balboni

Exhibit Catalogs

The Italian Presepe: Cultural Landscape of the Soul is an exploration of an important form of traditional religious Italian dioramic art depicting the Nativity. The Italian presepe is a widely practiced art form, encompassing in three dimensions elements of sculpture, painting and set design.