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.”