Statement of Purpose

"SANDY: in Defined Space" stands as an interesting symbol nestled in the pasture behind Sheldon Art Gallery. Nearly anyone that passes surely notices the strangeness that the sculpture presents, and that in itself is one of the foremost points of this artwork. The audience that has the opportunity to view SANDY varies as greatly as the general population. Fact is, by being witnessed by so many different types of people, the sculpture takes on an equally varied perspective of purpose, theme and inspiration. To completely understand, it make sense to first go into the details that comprise this piece.

For instance, the shapes and styles of the different parts of the sculpture are very important. When viewing the sculpture in the picture at left, it is clear to see the distinct difference between the rounded, seemingly organic, shapes of SANDY's body and the flat, clean, rigid framework that surrounds her. This is one point that can be viewed in a few different ways. As this sculpture was designed and constructed in 1967, there is an easy to see connection between SANDY's position in a framework box and the civil rights battle that was raging throughout society at the time. Given SANDY's posture of being pushed against each of the four corners and sides of her square, it can be viewed that she is still being cofined to her sector of society, but that she is starting to reach out and get a feel for what life is like on the outside. Truly, this would be a woman's seen purpose of the piece.

As for a what a man may see, realize how the sculpture is constructed with two squares supporting two squares with pairs of angles everywhere, yet SANDY is alone on her side of the sculpture. With a bit of inferring, the pair to a woman is a man, which seems to be missing. Now again to the civil rights purpose, where a man obviously wouldn't be stuck on the inside of a framework box. Yet, if a man stepped up and looked into the box, the sculpture would be complete with a man looking from the outside in on the woman looking for the inside out.

"SANDY: in Defined Space" is a very deep sculpture, much deeper than a first glance may provide. A woman sitting in a mostly open box is transformed into a inspirational lecture about civil rights and gender theory. Of course Robert Miller had better intentions for his most famous design than for wondering students to look at a naked bronze girl sitting uncomfortably three feet above the ground. Possibly these intentions didn't involve civil rights at all, but had they been? Well he would have hit the nail on the head.

WP3: Prewrite 3

If there is one genuine moral that can be gained from Wayne Coyne's "Zaireeka," it's that there is much more to be gained from a normal occurrence or piece of art than what is commonly noticed. For instance, the entire album is meant to be listened on four separate musical amplifiers playing simultaneously so that each of the four parts jive together into one complete piece. Obviously this isn't how music is normally heard and Coyne had to think well outside the box to even come up with this idea, let alone put it into action.

Likewise, with my upcoming sculpture rhetorical analysis (so no, I will not be partaking in any imitations or sculpture hugging), I will have to think in a different light than I normally would to be able to understand the ideas being brought out by my sculpture and the reasons why my sculpture is significant enough to be deemed worthy of having real estate on the campus of a major university. With that as an idea, I have a few insights.

My main idea is most definitely the sculpture's relationship with the area surrounding it. When viewed from a side taking into account the nature and nearby architecture, "SANDY: in Defined Space" takes on a very strong role as a focus. While I never would have thought that a piece of artwork could really fit into a landscape without being camoflauged or hidden, SANDY gave me a new realization due to its use of perspective and location. Using the picture at right of SANDY in a very non-primary view, it's easy to see how easily the bronze sculpture fits into the surrounding area. The grass is obviously cut around the base, but the tree follows up the right side of the sculpture and the main branch bends leftward as if following the contour of SANDY's shoulder and head. The roof of Westbrook cuts down and to the right as if completeing the top of the box that is not present. Even the sidewalk behind SANDY is drawn near parallel to the level of bronze that the woman is sitting on. Now, while all this may not tell us an exorbanat amount of information about the piece, we can arrive at the conclusion that SANDY was most likely not a random selection nor was the location in which she sits picked on accident.

Of course, by looking at this piece, many questions are drawn out. I myself was left asking, why is the woman sitting there and not on the flat ground? Whay are there only two levels of squares? Why is the woman unclothed in exhibitionist form, yet the name itself says SANDY is in a defined space? Truly there are many things that the sculpture draws us to think, but at the same time, it is just as easy to take what is noticable from it. To take this sculpture apart, item by item is the goal of Zaireeka, yet the case may call for something more along the lines of a general concept such as the one that I have uncovered here.