Sculpture Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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.

Chester Cornett: Beyond The Narrow Sky, Chester Cornett, Kentucky Folk Art Center

Kentucky Folk Art Center Exhibition Catalogs

2014 Kentucky Folk Art Center exhibition catalog of artist Chester Cornett.

Projected Surfaces, Jason Flynn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this paper I will address the philosophies of Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes and Thomas Ruff by considering the object, materials and processes of photography as my primary motivator to create art. I will examine the contrast between photographic imagery, as an illusion of the past, and sculpture, as a physical manifestation of the present, when creating works that ask, "What else can photography be?"

Concrete Painting, Stephanie Cafcules

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the evolution of my artwork with synthetic materials through influences of the Minimalist and Process Artists of the 1960's and 1970's, inspiration from natural forms, and my exploration of concrete painting. Each work reveals discoveries of different processes and materials, accelerating the creation of new works. It is my hope this thesis will inform viewers about the process and concepts that my work embodies.

Doubting Thomas: The Testaments, Ivan Riascos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper will discuss the creation of my artwork, which has been inspired by my experiences and understandings of Catholicism and its icons. I will consider how iconography works in art, its influence, and how and why I have created this artwork dealing with my beliefs. I will also refer to the works of contemporary artists Duane Michals and Michael Wesely to help explain my exhibition, which I have titled "Doubting Thomas: The Testaments."

Robert Smithson, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Smithson, Robert (1938-1973), a prominent U.S. artist, original critic, and theorist, is known for the Spiral Jetty (1970) in Utah's Great Salt Lake and other earthworks. He was a continuing influence and significant voice with respect to environmental art and postmodernism, introduced concepts such as entropy and geological time into the making and discussion of art, and focused on the intertwining of text and visual structure or surface.

Inspiration And Realization, Shannon Wright

SWITCH

Artist Shannon Wright reflects on her personal experience with art, and sculpture in particular, including the differences between the inspiration and realization stages of art creation.

Funerary Stela Of Heni, Risd Museum, Antoine Revoy, James Allen

Channel

Offered symbolically, the images and hieroglyphics depicted on the right of this funerary stela ensured that Heni, a local high official, would never experience hunger or thirst in the afterlife. The slightly awkward proportions of Heni’s figure are typical of monuments of the First Intermediate period, when there was no centralized government in Egypt. The lack of royal control over artistic production during this time allowed artists to experiment, as seen in the multiple levels of relief on Heni’s kilt, the particular green of the hieroglyphs, and the striped border. 2134-2040 BCE

2013 Forces, Scott Yarbrough

Forces

No abstract provided.

Chair And Table, Risd Museum, Tony Cokes, Rosanne Somerson

Channel

Richard Artschwager was a scientist and a furniture maker before becoming an artist. Through a witty transformation of material and scale characteristic of Pop Art, his work considers the relationship between art and everyday objects as it explores ideas about both sculpture and furniture. The exaggerated thickness of the chair and table negates their traditional function: the narrow space between the seat and tabletop make it impossible to sit there. Artschwager’s use of Formica® with a simulated wood-grain pattern raises questions about what is real, fake, or a simulation of something else. In the case of his Exclamation Point, Artschwager …

Body As A Vessel, Matt Chenoweth

Department of Art and Design

No abstract provided.

David Lucas, David Lucas, Kentucky Folk Art Center

Kentucky Folk Art Center Exhibition Catalogs

2013 Kentucky Folk Art Center exhibition catalog for artist David Lucas.

Sculpting The Future: New Public Art Incubator Seeks To Enable Regional Artists To Produce Commissioned Public Art Through Uni, Northern Iowa Today, Winter 2013

Art on Campus Documents

Various articles on art at the University of Northern Iowa (also formerly known as Iowa State Teachers College).

Passages Through The Ordinary: Human Pyramid, Daniel Dean

Art & Design Faculty Research

A man picks his way across a wooded hillside, a curious reluctance in his step. In a small, two-door hatchback, pale mushrooms sprout from car seats. Drawings of edibles spread across the walls of a windowless room, where wooden furniture beckons to sit, linger, and enjoy the view. A dumpster doubles as a hot tub next to an arrangement of plywood benches and white ceramic tubs, inviting the weary to bathe their feet in salubrious salts. Close by, a set of coal-black bowls nestles into itself, while dust motes dance in a glow of orange light. Ladders and levels, carefully …

Exhibit Curriculum For Condition: My Place Our Longing (Lesson 2 Of 2), Sarah Aponte, Dania Diag

Open Educational Resources

Exhibit curriculum for the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute exhibit, Condition: My Place Our Longing.

The exhibit highlights the work of two young Dominican immigrant artists living in New York: Julianny Ariza and Leslie Jiménez and showcases original pieces produced between 2011 and 2012 that explore the subject of living in between two worlds, and other conditions of living.

Exhibit Curriculum For Condition: My Place Our Longing (Lesson 1 Of 2), Sarah Aponte, Dania Diaz

Open Educational Resources

Exhibit curriculum for the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute exhibit, Condition: My Place Our Longing.

The exhibit highlights the work of two young Dominican immigrant artists living in New York: Julianny Ariza and Leslie Jiménez and showcases original pieces produced between 2011 and 2012 that explore the subject of living in between two worlds, and other conditions of living.