Campus Sculpture Tour

Rad Collier Acton

CIRCUMSPECTION, 1976
Marble
25 ¼ x 25 ¼ x 22 inches
Gift of Jeanne and Howard Burkle in memory of Heidi Burkle

Circumspection quietly sits in the rotunda of the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts. Its title suggests its tact and discretion, its cool gray presence against the red brick of the rotunda. At once circular and linear, whole and empty, positive and negative, Circumspection adds a complex figure to the space. Though constructed from a continuous rectangular shape, Acton weaves the line of his sculpture in and out of itself, building a strangely smooth knot. For Acton, the knot is the careful act of sculpting: “The word ‘circumspection’ served as a description of the process of exploring the beautiful interior of something otherwise opaque and impenetrable,” he writes.  “As such the word represents the nature of the thinking/carving process as a constant and careful 360 degree engagement with a formidable block of marble.  The form of the piece with its interpenetrations and spherical shape emulates that process for me.”

The piece is the gift of Jeanne and Howard Burkle, former lecturer and professor emeritus of religious studies, respectively. The Burkles gave Circumspection—the work of a Grinnell alumnus—in memory of their daughter, Heidi, also a Grinnell student. These layers of local connection may be reimagined in the continuity of line and in the gentle twists of Circumspection. It becomes an almost visual representation of the connectivity of this space. When Amy Graves, Heidi’s sister and coordinator of Grinnell’s Community Service Center, views the piece, she imagines another type of knot. “I’ve always thought of it as an eternal knot—even though the person is gone, [there is] an endless process” of remembering and unraveling, she said. Though Acton did not know Burkle himself, he is proud that his piece can help to remember her. “As an artist,” he writes, “it is truly the highest of honors to have one's work serve such a significant purpose as this.” As such, Circumspection remembers—not only the careful work of Acton, but also the life of Heidi.

About the Artist: Rad Collier Acton ’78 is an alumnus of Grinnell College. At Grinnell, he majored in anthropology, but maintained a strong interest in art, spending 15 months working and studying in Italy during his third year. Acton completed Circumspection over a four-month period while working independently in Pietrasanta, Italy.  There, he rented studio space and tools from artisan sculptor Sem Ghilardini, who has worked for artists such as Henry Moore and Isamu Noguchi. Upon his return to Grinnell, Acton showed this piece, along with 19 others, in a student show. He currently runs Acton Architecture and Planning in Sante Fe, N.M.

Essay by Christine Hancock ‘06
2006