TITLE: Spirit Keeper
ARTIST: Steve Wooldridge
DATE: 2007
MATERIALS: stainless steel
DIMENSIONS: 6.5′ x 3.2′ x 3.2′
TYPE: sculpture
Abstraction can trigger resemblance. What do you see in Spirit Keeper (2007) by Hoosier artist Steve Wooldridge? A sail? A leaf? An ear? A flower petal? A flame? Or something else?
What you see doesn’t have to remain fixed, of course. As we change over time, so does our perception of things.
Our experiences offer up potential for remembrance and connection, giving us new ways to perceive, engage with, and understand our world so long as we remain open to possibilities.
Wooldridge graduated with a degree in sculpture in 1963, at what was then known as Herron Art Institute. Spirit Keeper was donated to IUPUI in 2007 by Norma Winkler, owner of Indianapolis’ Rock Island Refining Corporation, which produced the stainless steel for this sculpture. If you like this piece, be sure to check out Zephyr (1998), another Wooldridge sculpture on campus.
To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_Keeper,
which includes information created by Herron School of Art and Design and IUPUI
Museum Studies faculty and students in 2009 as part of “A
Survey of IUPUI Public Art.”