Devils Lake's own she-wolf.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this postSculpture groupings should not be haphazard, or the end up looking as bad as "add-on" architecture.
The classic case would be the "She-wolf of the Capitol", or, I suppose as the proper name, the Capitoline Wolf. Etruscan wolf with...little suckling humans added on later. It's a sculpture that nearly drove me insane while studying art history in college.
What were they thinking? The styles -- none of it -- is coherent! I would think as we discussed the reasons the 15th century babies were later added to a much older sculpture. The margins of my notebook are filled with unreasonable and insane ramblings about the propensity for humans to keep adding on. I also had many grumpy-looking drawings. I was highly dissatisfied.
Yes, in keeping with the theme of "posts on subjects that matter little", I am going to tell you about the sculpture grouping in Devils Lake that seems to have slipped past the point of no return.
It started as a very nice sculpture of five geese flying, in memory of a man who had died. This was eventually located at the corner where Highway 19 and 17 intersect in Devils Lake. Then, a piece of WW2-era captured Japanese artillery was added on a concrete base just off to the side of the geese grouping.
Hmmm. What's the message here? I thought the first time I drove past the burgeoning "sculpture park." I knew the city of New Rockford had some a tank and a Vietnam-era (I think) helicopter situated near the highway, but those were all military in origin and the effect was one of a memorial of a number of different wars.
This was...artillery and geese.
Later, after much fuss in the paper after a private citizen purchased a life-size bronze sculpture of a soldier holding a rifle at rest and stuck it out in the same general area -- The Park Board was upset! Did they now have to put up with caring for any sculpture that a person wanted to stick out there?! -- and so then I started to feel that the very nice geese were out of place.
At some point, unbeknownst to me, three more identical soldier figures were purchased, and set at each corner of the artillery piece. There is also a huge, full-color eagle figure somewhere to the back off all of this, flanked by flags, in frozen near-take-off.
The effect is, in my opinion, weird.
I can't find a better word than weird.
We can't just go around sticking sculpture together! A sculptural grouping must be planned or else it becomes like add-on architecture in which styles and materials don't match and the lack of cohesiveness gives little other message than "We didn't plan this."
It's very much like how people hire a contractor to tack a bay window onto a bungalow house or some other such building -- it does not fit visually! Why not just add Palladian windows or Greek Revival architecture to a pup tent! Same thing!
Consider this blog post my margins for ranting about this particular instance.
To complete the look of the Devils Lake sculpture grouping, all we need now are some Renaissance putti sitting on the shoulders of the soldier statues. Then we can call it a day.
My work here is done.
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 1/22/2008 02:35:00 PM
Like this post? Subscribe to the feed.
Help support this site.
Facebook |
Stumble It! |
Del.icio.us |
DiggIt! |
Technorati |
Blinklist |
Furl |
reddit |
Newsvine
2 Comments:
I have to be careful when I read your posts because sometimes I just can't help but laugh out loud. My students already think I'm weird (yes, weird) enough.
You make it so easy to visualize! Welcome to Julie-world. :)
By 
Rey, at
23/1/08 13:10
Aaaaaaaaand....that is why I moved away.
Well, one of the reasons.
By oldtranslations, at
23/1/08 16:55
