At the University of Oklahoma there exists a student body diverse in culture, people working towards different paths in life, however the one common denominator betweeen them is their desire to succeed. Often students get siderailed through the course of there academic careers and lose focus of their ultimate goals and need direction in how to succeed. Innovators in any field do not think conventionally, they often stray from the flock conceptualizing their own set of ideals to challenge old ways of thinking and bringing forth new knowledge. This forward way of thinking is often refered to as “thinking outside of the box”. This simple slogan is the inspiration to my proposal. The public sculpture that I am proposing is the embodiement of this idea, a celebration of student body, and a guide and reminder to them.
What I am proposing is sculpture to be located in the North Oval on the grass island bewteen the Fred Jones Fine Arts School and the Visitior Center. It will consist of a cube with a human brain next to it. The cube will measure 7ft x 7ft x 7ft and two oval hemispheres will be approximately 10 ft x 7 ft x 15 ft. The materials to be used are bronze for the cube, white marble for the brain and grey marble for the base that is to be 2ft x 20 ft x 20ft. Given the dimensions noone should mistake this for an ambigious sculpture, anyone will clearly be able to to identfy this as three dimensional artwork.
Concise mehanical lines will form the absolute geometric shape of the cube. The brain however will not look exactly as a human brain does, but rather will be a minimal abstracted version, that will be acheived by the use lyrical lines to illustrate this organic form. The bronze of the cube will be painted black to contrast the white marble of the brain, and the gray marble of the base will serve to bring balance to the over all composition of the peice. Although the cube will be painted, the texture inherant to bronze will still be visible. The marble will be highly polished so that it has a high luster, but the striations and granulations of the stone will still be able to be seen.
The high traffic location of the sculpture will allow many people to only get to glance at it in transit while driving around the oval. The use of this allegorical theme, the cube used as symbol for the “Box” and the brain as a symbol for “Thinking”, and the arrangement of the the two objects the brain outside of the box, should allow these casual viewers to to quickly grasp and accurately see the work for what it represents without requiring an in depth analysis. Other viewers that actually walk though the area on a regular basis will have the opportunity to dissect it further. Once the general theme of the peice has been established the next obvious thing will be that the scaling of the brain is larger than the cube, hence enforcing the idea that thinking outside the box is important.
The use of hard mechanical lines and strict geometric order in the sculture represents conventional thinking. The lyrical line of the brain will represent innovative thinking. The Box itself is an object that we as people identify as archaic since it is one of the first shapes we learn as children and will represent a way of thinking that is fundamental to higher learning but only as a learning block. The simultaneous contrast of the muted black color of the box and the lustrous white of the brain will show the struggle between these two schools of thought. The Box in shape resembles a cage representing the ideal that thinking only with the boundaries of what you are taught is imprisoning yourself from further growth. Right next to this box the brain looks more free, an organic form that is free from the shackles that the box is bound by. The base is grey and combination of black and white, and represents the bridge between conventional and innovative thought.
As stated earlier the intended audience for the sculpture is wide range of people, students who attend the university, casual drive-byers, prospective students and their parent, and other visitors or residents of the university. Since the sculpture has the potential to be viewed by so many people I chose simple shapes and an abstracted free forms, so as not to be offensive as well as having a universal appeal to it diverse audience. Where the sculpture is located, if you go further south walking towards the campus other smaller sculptures can be found as well. While the smaller scale scultures are engaing the do not jump out and demand atention from the viewer.
This is not the reaction that I am attempting to garner from the audience, i dont want people people to say “Hey, look i found a sculpture”. I want them to say “You cant miss that sculture.” For this reason the sheer size of it is very important to it, after what good is your meesage if it cant reach it’s audience.The other smaller scucltures will also serve as a transition to this larger sculpture. The environment itself, mostly grass and trees will serve as a stark contrast to this structure of stone and metal, but it will still blend in with the surrounding buildings and other stone structures.
The reaon for my proposal is simple, i think that often a single idea or thought is enough motivation for someone to succeed. This sculpture will serve to remind students that they need to apply “thinking outside the box” to their pragmatic approach. It will serve as an invitation to those prospective students that while this is an established scholastic intitution with deep rooted traditions that we encourage free, forward thinking. It will serve those people only in transit, in a casual glance that small push in the right direction. as people we complicate things, and usually getting to the bare bones is the answer. Often in the face of adversity we are lost in how to approach a solution. This sculpture is the answer to all those questions, an it is my intention to provide that message by making it.
