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Category: 1990s

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Zephyr by Steve Wooldridge

Zephyr by Steve Wooldridge

TITLE: Zephyr
ARTIST: Steve Wooldridge
DATE: 1998
MATERIALS: stainless steel
DIMENSIONS: 13′ x 2′ x 10′
TYPE: sculpture

Zephyr (1998) is composed of seven shapes, each signaling a different meaning. According to artist Steven Woolridge, the rectangular base represents the core of education; the side-by-side cylinders refer to the wheels of progress; the triangle symbolizes a mode of transportation designed for speed; the small cylinder that supports the hoop signifies fortitude and determination; the hoop itself stands for the circle of life; the long pole represents ambition; and the hollow scroll stands for knowledge.

What do you reckon it all adds up to? What story might Woolridge be trying to tell? And why did he choose to dedicate the piece to today’s youth?

In Greek mythology, Zephyrus was the personification of the west wind, the bringer of light spring and early summer breezes. The Greeks are central to our imagination of progress. The wind is a force. It can be refreshing but also disruptive. It can be chaotic, but it can also be harnessed.

In Iroquois tradition, by contrast, the west wind is brought by the Panther, ugly and fierce.

How might the Iroquois understanding help us think about the nature of progress in light of certain ambitions? Are there new winds that can help us achieve the balance this sculpture demonstrates? What kind of knowledge and ambitions would we necessary to harness them?

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_(Wooldridge), 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.”


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Untitled (Jazz Musicians) by John Spaulding

Untitled (Jazz Musicians) by John Spaulding

TITLE: Untitled (Jazz Musicians)
ARTIST: John Spaulding
DATE: 1995
MATERIALS: bronze
DIMENSIONS: 8.5′ x 19′ x 19′
TYPE: sculpture

Untitled (Jazz Musicians) (1995) is one of two sculptures found at IUPUI by native Indy artist John Spaulding (1942-2004). A tribute to the legendary heritage of jazz and performance along Indiana Avenue, each of the five figures represents an actual Indianapolis jazz musician: the guitarist is Spaulding’s father; the saxophonist is his brother, noted musician James Spaulding; the bassist is Larry Ridley; the trumpeter is Freddie Hubbard; and the drummer is ‘Killer Ray’ Appleton.

In May 2011, the figure representing James Spaulding was broken off at the knees and stolen. The sculpture also suffered several other cuts. A local newspaper reported on June 13, 2011, that police recovered the piece after it was brought to a scrap yard for sale after someone had discovered it in a trash bin.

Vandalism is always a risk for public sculpture, but this particular incident might allow us to think about other forms of vandalism and dispossession that afflicted the jazz musicians of Indiana Avenue, along with their communities, over time, on a more systemic scale.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untitled_(Jazz_Musicians), 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.”

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The South Tower by Don Gummer

The South Tower by Don Gummer

TITLE: The South Tower
ARTIST: Don Gummer
DATE: 1998
MATERIALS: Stainless Steel
DIMENSIONS: 10′ x 2′ x 3′
TYPE: sculpture

On his way to his New York studio one autumn morning in 2001, Indiana-raised Don Gummer saw the South Tower of the World Trade Center fall during the 9/11 terror attacks. “It’s seared into my memory,” he said.

The South Tower (2008), Gummer’s 10 foot tall aluminum sculpture memorializing that moment, is an example of how art can be used to work through a trauma that is both personal and public. The leaning, quivering S-shape of the stainless steel that emerges from vertically-louvered design confers a sense of the inevitable in a moment that many of us never imagined was possible.

Gummer has won awards from the American Academy in Rome, the National Endowment of the Arts, and the Tiffany Foundation. His works are generally large in scale, complex, and benefit from sustained experience over time. Together with his wife, the great actor Meryl Streep, Gummer is also an activist philanthropist. His sculpture, Open Eyes (2011), is also installed on campus.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_South_Tower_(sculpture), 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.”

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Temple VI by Austin Collins

Temple VI by Austin Collins

TITLE: Temple VI
ARTIST: Austin Collins
DATE: 1996
MATERIALS: Steel
DIMENSIONS: 10′ 4″ x 3′ 8″ x 2′ 6″
TYPE: sculpture

Close your eyes and imagine a temple. Got it? Now open your eyes and have a look at Austin Collins’ Temple VI (1996).

Is it any different than what you saw in your mind’s eye? How?

Do you think this sculpture is a temple? Why or why not?

Collins, a Holy Cross priest and a professor of sculpture at the University of Notre Dame, described this series as follows: “In my recent work, The Temple Series, I hope to invoke in the viewer a sense of sacred space, of retreating, of reflection. By constructing a space with abstract geometric steel forms, referencing architecture, games, and toys, Temple VII generates a bodily response from both structure and composition.”

How do you feel in the space that this temple provides?

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_VI, 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.”

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Procession of Ants by David Bowen

Procession of Ants by David Bowen

TITLE: Procession of Ants
ARTIST: David Bowen
DATE: 1999
MATERIALS: steel
DIMENSIONS: 3.5′
TYPE: sculpture

Procession of Ants (1998) is a collection of fifteen ant sculptures arranged in the sunken flower bed on the south side of Taylor Hall. Each is three and a half feet long. How many can you spot in total? Here’s a hint: some are on the wall. Ants have tiny claws and adhesive hairs on their feet that are essentially sticky pads that allow them to climb walls. David Bowen created this piece as a student at the Herron School of Art and Design. His work explores the dynamic between art, biosystems, and technology.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procession_of_Ants_(sculpture), 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.”

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Portrait of History by The Zhou Brothers

Portrait of History by The Zhou Brothers

TITLE: Portrait of History
ARTIST: ShanZuo Zhou and DaHuang Zhou
DATE: 1997
MATERIALS: bronze
DIMENSIONS: 8’4″ x 2′ x 2’6″
TYPE: sculpture


What is this strange figure? Give it some time. What does it look like to you? Does it change shape? Is this a person? A flower bud? A bird? The trunk of a tree perhaps?

Portrait of History (1997) by Chinese-American artists The Zhou Brothers, invites us to reconsider our linear approach to history by confronting us with a narrow bronze figure fixed in a state of becoming. To craft a portrait of history is to acknowledge that there are many ways to see it. To imply that there is more than one history is to suggest that history is not fixed, but continuously reshaped.

From the autonomous Chinese region of GuangXi, ShanZuo (b. 1952) and DaHuang Zhou (b. 1957) have worked out of their Chicago studio since the 1980s. “At the beginning, we knew it was interesting, but we didn’t know how special it was…” says DaHuang. “But more and more as we worked together, we realized the value of the collaboration. People think we have the same idea and bring harmony to it before coming to the canvas. That’s wrong. The value of the collaboration is that it opens up things that couldn’t happen any other way.”

Portrait of History shares its name with a series of four oil-on-paper portraits by the Zhou Brothers which are more traditional and less abstract.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_History , 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.”

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Mother’s Helper by Derek Chalfant

Mother's Helper by Derek Chalfant

TITLE: Mother’s Helper
ARTIST: Derek Chalfant
DATE: 1998
MATERIALS: stainless steel, bronze
DIMENSIONS: 15′ x 8′ x 3′
TYPE: sculpture

Can you discern all the forms that figure into Indiana-born Derek Chalfant’s provocative Mother’s Helper (1998)? Let’s start from the top: a baby’s high chair extends downward via exaggerated legs to the ground where it transforms into a rocker, straddling what appears to be a recumbent Christian Cross. At the head of the cross, there are two bronze objects: a baby and a cast of the “Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary.” How might these pieces come together to tell a story, ask a question, or make a statement?

According to Chalfant, “the high chair represents nutrients needed for life, the rocker symbolizes rest and nurturing, the baby with its head on the dictionary represents knowledge, and the cross is a symbol of spirituality—all ingredients needed for human growth.”

Can you imagine other ways of arranging these ingredients? Are there other ingredients for human growth that you might include?

A Herron alumnus who is now associate professor of art at Elmira College in Upstate New York, Chalfant’s research includes designing and making sculpture and furniture specializing in wood and metal fabrication, as well as casting metal and glass.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Helper_(sculpture),  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.”

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Glory by Garry Bibbs

Glory by Garry Bibbs

TITLE: Glory
ARTIST: Garry Bibbs
DATE: 1999
MATERIALS: bronze & steel
DIMENSIONS: 30′ x 8′ x 1′
TYPE: sculpture

Glory (1999), by African-American artist Garry R. Bibbs, was commissioned by local philanthropist Joseph F. Miller to adorn his eponymous center dedicated to combatting HIV and AIDS.

Because the site once housed the Second Baptist Church, one of the city’s oldest African-American Baptist churches, Bibbs drew on African-American traditions (including jazz), along with the Bible’s book of Ezekiel, to create a work meant to instill joy and hope.

Bibbs’ writes of his work: “Through my art, I want to share honesty about my human experiences, my African American heritage and my environment, whether it is good, bad or indifferent. Life is so precious, so it is important that my viewers feel enlightened, uplifted and free. They should be made aware that there is an answer, a power and a glory. So live a good life and be gracious in God’s creative beauty, which we are given to use as we call, the ARTS.”

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(sculpture), 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.”

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Antenna Man by Eric Nordgulen

Antenna Man by Eric Nordgulen

TITLE: Antenna Man
ARTIST: Eric Nordgulen
DATE: 1998
MATERIALS: Aluminum
DIMENSIONS: 11′ x 13′
TYPE: sculpture

Eric Nordgulen, Professor at the Herron School of Art and Design, created Antenna Man (1998) as part of an antenna-inspired series.

The piece is composed of twenty-one curved horizontal bars stacked on a pair of vertical supports rendering a figure that appears part human, part machine, inviting us to wonder where the one ends and the other begins.

If “the perception of sculpture is a physical experience that can become a catalyst for new thoughts and ideas,” as Nordgulen suggests, then what does Antenna Man offer us?

Antennas are machines designed to transmit and receive. As beings increasingly accompanied and augmented by technology, what are we now capable and incapable of transmitting and receiving? What effect might these capacities and incapacities have on our futures as a species?

Nordgulen’s work can be found throughout the country. In Indianapolis, you can see Viewfinders on Massachusetts Avenue and another Antenna Man in Crown Hill Cemetery.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antenna_Man_(Nordgulen) , 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.”