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Category: 2000s

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Untitled (IUPUI Letters) by Two Twelve

Untitled (IUPUI Letters) by Two Twelve

TITLE: Untitled (IUPUI Letters)
ARTIST: Two Twelve
DATE: 2008
MATERIALS: stainless steel
TYPE: sculpture

Untitled (IUPUI Letters) consists of five 7’5” tall letters which can be apprehended singularly or together to form the acronym of the university. The letter enclosures sit perpendicular to the full cabinets, giving each letter a multidimensional appearance.

Lead designer David Gibson, an architect who specializes in public information design, imagined the sculpture as a public way-finding tool, helping visitors to locate the new Campus Center building. This installation speaks to the power of public art in place-making, rendering the Campus Center identifiable to visitors. New York design firm Two Twelve collaborated with Indianapolis-based ASI Modulex to fabricate and install the sculpture.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untitled_(IUPUI_Letters), 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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Unknown (Tall Metal) by Carey Chapman

TITLE: Untitled (Tall Metal)
ARTIST: Cary Chapman
DATE: 2001
MATERIALS: steel
DIMENSIONS: 16′ x 4’8″ x 3′
TYPE: sculpture


Untitled stands sixteen feet tall on a series of geometric shapes. Constructed of steel, it was originally black, and has been weathered red by time. Untitled was created in 2001 by Cary Chapman, then a senior sculpture student at the Herron School of Art and Design, for an exhibition coordinated by the IUPUI Campus Art Committee. The choice not to name a work of art is an invitation for the reader to encounter it more fully on their own terms. After a deep engagement with the piece, is there a name you would imagine giving it?

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untitled_(Cary_Chapman),  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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Torso Fragment by Casey Eskridge

Torso Fragment by Casey Eskridge

TITLE: Torso Fragment
ARTIST: Casey Eskridge
DATE: 2005
MATERIALS: Aluminum
DIMENSIONS: 3′ 2″ x 1′ 8″ x 1′ 6″
TYPE: sculpture


Torso Fragment (2005) is a contemporary take on the contrapposto form, an asymmetrical representation of the human figure that results when weight rests primarily on one leg.

Try it yourself. Put most of your weight on your right leg and notice how it shifts your shoulders and hips. Now, try it with your left leg. Artists often use contrapposto to capture dynamism and nuance in the human form.

While contrapposto can be found in art around the world, it became central to the European sculptural and pictorial repertoire during the Renaissance-perhaps most famously embodied in Michelango’s David (1504). This is the tradition from which Herron alum Casey Eskridge draws.

Eskridge’s figure evokes the fragments of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture that so inspired Renaissance artists. But, looking to the contemporary world, he casts his torso in aluminum—that material so essential to modernity—the fabric of airplanes, automobiles, skyscrapers, and computers

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torso_Fragment,  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 Herron Arch 1 by James Wille Faust

The Herron Arch 1 by James Wille Faust

TITLE: The Herron Arch 1
ARTIST: James Wille Faust
DATE: 2005
MATERIALS: painted aluminum
DIMENSIONS: 20′ x 7′ x 7′
TYPE: sculpture

The Herron Arch 1 (2005) was the first large-scale sculpture created by James Wille Faust, renowned alumnus of the Herron School of Art and Design.

Composed of over thirty geometrically-shaped pieces of painted aluminum, the work sits at the intersection of sculpture and painting. “Unconcerned about what classification my work fits into, I am free to explore with no limitations and in any direction, style or medium,” states Faust, whose airbrush work has received acclaim.

A lovely conceit of this piece comes from moving around it. From its front or back, it appears black and white. But, as you move around it, you are greeted with a lovely array of prime colors—a reminder that things can surprise you if you give them time and approach them from different angles.

Designed and painted by Faust, the 20 foot tall arch was fabricated by Indianapolis-based Tarpening-Lafollette Company.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Herron_Arch_1, 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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Table of Contents by Dale Enochs

Table of Contents by Dale Enochs

TITLE: Table of Contents
ARTIST: Dale Enochs
DATE: 2008
MATERIALS: limestone
DIMENSIONS: 42′ x 20′ x 50′
TYPE: sculpture


Table of Contents (1999) features an orb, a box, a pyramid, and a crescent cylinder carefully arranged on a hefty table, each fashioned from limestone. In some places there are fissures and lines; in other areas, it is smooth. The word “terrae” has been carved into the stone. “Terrae” refers to a vast highland region of a planet.

In choosing this word, Bloomington-based artist Dale Enochs may be asking us to think about connections between planetary and human scales, and how we mold one into the other. According to what values, laws, desires, and dreams do we fashion the world? Enochs’ provocative public work can be found throughout Indiana. He is based in Bloomington, where he earned his Masters of Fine Arts at Indiana University.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_Contents_(Enochs), 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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Spirit Keeper by Steve Wooldridge

Spirit Keeper by Steve Wooldridge

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.”

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Orange Curves by Brent Gann

Orange Curves by Brent Gann

TITLE: Orange Curves
ARTIST: Brent Gann
DATE: 2000
MATERIALS: painted steel
DIMENSIONS: 4′ x 4′ x 3′
TYPE: sculpture

Created by Herron School of Art and Design alumnus Brent Gann, Orange Curves (2000) is a four foot tall sculpture consisting of three interlocking steel curves, painted orange. Walk around the sculpture and see how perspective changes your perceptions of it. Is the work abstract or representational? Is it a play on shape or typography? Might the curves be chain links that have been broken? Metal is cast, welded or both to create a sculpture; Orange Curves shows evidence of both. Gann is an American artist who obtained B.F.A.s in both visual communication and sculpture from Herron School of Art and Design in 2000, who has since worked in graphic design.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Curves,  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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Luminary by Jeff Laramore

Luminary by Jeff Laramore

TITLE: Luminary
ARTIST: Jeff Laramore
DATE: 2008
MATERIALS: Onyx
DIMENSIONS: 4′ x 41′ x 5′
TYPE: sculpture

The design for Luminary (2008) came out of conversations and focus groups with cancer patients and caregivers. A white sphere composed of thin tiles of onyx inscribed with bands of reddish-brown agate is held, tenderly, by a wave design resembling a pair of hands.

Luminary appears to remind us how important it is to be held, especially during times of illness. In the darkness of night, caregiving reveals itself as a beacon of warmth, as light emanates from within the sphere.

Jeff Laramore of 2nd Globe Studios was lead designer for the sculpture, which was commissioned by Clarion Health Partners.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminary_(Laramore) , 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.” This sculpture was removed in 2022.

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Job by Judith Shea

Job by Judith Shea

TITLE: Job
ARTIST: Judith Shea
DATE: 2005
MATERIALS: Bronze
DIMENSIONS: 6’3″ x 3’2″ x 2’6″
TYPE: sculpture

Judith Shea’s Job (2005) depicts the iconic figure alone, ragged, exposed to the elements, looking up to the sky. Who among us has not felt the same way? The power of sculpture to materialize—on a human scale—the stories, fables, beliefs, and traditions that give our lives order and meaning is one of the central promises of the medium. The wax coating of the bronze appear as rain drops, but it also calls to mind the tears Job appears to be too tired to shed.

Born in Philadelphia in 1948, Shea is an American artist who has worked with cloth and clothing forms, hollow cast metal clothing figure forms, and carved full figure statues in a variety of mediums.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_(Shea),  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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Horizons by Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir

Horizons by Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir

TITLE: Horizons
ARTIST: Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir
DATE: 2007-08
MATERIALS: glass, iron
TYPE: sculpture

How do you encounter Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir’s provocative Horizons (2008)? Does the work invite you to stray off your narrow path or does it quicken your step? Does it turn your head or fix it to the ground? Do you identify with one figure more than another? Or do they repel you? In other words, how do we square with these strange entities?

These life size cast iron figures are designed to age and weather over time, developing a patina that connects them, more and more, to the natural world. In their transformation, they invite us to connect our own aging processes to those of the earth.

But why are these figures, as a group, named Horizons? Look closer and find insets of green glass slipped into each body (except one!), references to the vast horizons that exist outside of Thórarinsdóttir’s Icelandic studio.

“The horizontal glass lines in the figures connect them to each other,” she explains. “But the glass also opens them up to daylight. So, it’s like a window that allows us to look into the inner world, the core.”

A temporary installation, this sculpture lived at IUPUI from 2018 to 2021.

Horizons the Art of Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir by Frank Cantor

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Entangled by Brose Partington

Entangled by Brose Partington

TITLE: Entangled
ARTIST: Brose Partington
DATE: 2004
MATERIALS: painted steel
DIMENSIONS: 9′ x 7’4” x 8’2”
TYPE: sculpture

What might a sculpture made by the son of a clock repairman look like? Indiana-based artist Brose Partingonton’s Entangled (2004) offers a glimpse. Consisting of eight interconnecting pieces that resemble the gears and mechanisms found in his father’s old Indianapolis clock repair shop, Partington’s abstract timepiece gives us time to think about the relationship between mechanics and nature.

“I’m currently building structures as parallels to patterns of natural occurrences,” explains the artist. “My work examines the subtle movements around us, and the patterns those movements create. I am trying to compare the cyclical patterns found in nature with manufactured objects, environments, and modes of transportation.”

In a world where manufacturing jobs are in decline and automation is on the rise, might Entangled be seen as a kind of memorial to the lost art of traditional craftsmanship? What can we do with the remains of time’s past?

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entangled_(Partington),  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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DNA Tower by Dale Chihuly

DNA Tower by Dale Chihuly

TITLE: DNA Tower
ARTIST: Dale Chihuly
DATE: 2003
MATERIALS: glass, steel, wood
DIMENSIONS: 20′ 3″ x 4′ 8″
TYPE: sculpture

DNA Tower (2003) consists of 1,200 blue, yellow, and pink spheres attached to a central core in a spiraling design that imitates the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The tower comes in at 20 feet tall; for comparison, if you stretched out the DNA in just one human cell, it would amount to around six feet of DNA!

Internationally-renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly created DNA Tower to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the IU School of Medicine, which also happened to be the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA, the self-replicating material that carriers genetic information.

A spectacular testament to the bonds between structure and suprise, unity and diversity, this jubilant tower locates hope in reproductive processes where selves produce others and similarity breeds diversity.

Chihuly’s iconic work can also be found at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, as well as Newfields.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_Tower , 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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Barrow by Jill Viney

Barrow by Jill Viney

TITLE: Barrow
ARTIST: Jill Viney
DATE: 2008
MATERIALS: fiberglass, metal mesh
DIMENSIONS: 8′ x 8′
TYPE: sculpture

New York-based artist Jill Viney was inspired by visits to European caves and burial mounds when she composed Barrow (2007), an 8’ by 8’ ridged dome made from a double wall of fiberglass encasing a sheet of metal meshing.

Barrows are prehistorical burial sites, shallow pit structures where the remains of the dead are filled over with stone or earth. Viney’s Barrow invites you to enter the sculpture through one of two entrances. “The dark inside with the silver exterior creates a luminous covering as the viewer enters the mound, explained Viney. “Overhead, as in a night sky, three rings of color hover above,” a pattern that evokes the ancient mysteries of prehistoric cave paintings.

How does the domed structure reveal tensions between the world inside and the world outside? How does it negotiate tensions between what hovers above and what lies below?

What does it mean to inhabit a barrow only temporarily? What kind of rest does it afford?

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