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Campus Sculpture Tour Robert Glenn Craig
UNTITLED, 1994 Artist Robert Craig planned this sculpture—a site-specific commission—as a direct response to its location. “Some influences on the design,” he said, “were the line quality found in the mature trees on campus, the stonework of Goodnow Hall, and the wedge space of land that the sculpture is sited to.” And Untitled’s design suggests these influences. The main sections of the sculpture grow up directly from the ground, strong trunks that still bend slightly to cross one another. Craig constructed the lower portions of these trunks from linear sections, large, irregular blocks that hint at stonework. The more organic shapes of the piece—such as the white section that crowns Untitled—play with the form of a wedge, adding curls and rolls. As he designed, Craig also considered the importance of the nearby walkway into campus from Park Street, which opens the campus and community to one another. As such, the arch-like shape of the sculpture suggests a metaphorical doorway into the campus. When designing this sculpture, Craig focused on the forms and situations found in the rural places of the Midwest. He became “increasingly interested in how objects, such as machine parts and rocks, are deliberately preserved by man and metamorphosed by nature” (artist statement). Such objects, after exposure to the elements, “become sun-bleached, rusted, and reduced to basic structures.” Untitled explores this reduction, presenting a core of form that feels almost incomplete. Meant to inspire a nostalgic feeling in viewers, Untitled appears aged, weathered, and forgotten, like old rusted agricultural machines or the remains of farms in the fields of the Midwest. In exploring the surrounding site as well as the shifts in Midwestern culture, Untitled simultaneously connects viewers to their present location and past time.About the Artist: Robert Craig is an associate professor of art at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa. He holds an M.F.A. from Florida State University-Tallahassee (1988), and a B.A. from Eastern Illinois University-Charleston (1986). His work is in many public collections, including the Hearst Center for the Arts, Cedar Falls, Iowa; the Nautilus Foundation, Tallahassee, Fla.; and Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa. He has participated in more than 60 regional and national exhibitions. Essay by Meredith Ibey ’00 and Christine Hancock ‘06 |
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| last updated 5/25/06 | Copyright © 2006 Grinnell College Grinnell, Iowa 50112 | 641-269-4660 |
