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By GORDON LIGOCKI | Friday, May 24, 1991 | (No comments posted.)
Motorists driving by Purdue Calumet have a new landmark - a new sculpture
in what has been the campus's ongoing outdoor gallery.
The new wood and aluminum arch by David DeCesaris of Hammond faces 173rd
Street from the south. Behind it, the brick walls of the Physical Education
Building offers a warm backdrop to the simple open form. The clean,
contemporary work will become a welcome object for some, a source of puzzlement
for others.
While large contemporary sculpture would seem to produce a very tangible
human environment, many viewers remain too culturally intimidated to be pulled
into that environment. Purdue Calumet's sculpture project has offered the
campus and the community exposure.
DeCesaris's work was chosen from a field of sculptors in a competition which
began in the spring of 1990. The sculptor relates that the recently installed
8-foot by 15-foot work had to be redesigned to its present form when the
university changed proposed sites for the sculpture. The original proposal
called for a larger 15-foot by 22-foot sculpture in wood and steel. Because
campus fabricating space was not available and the final location was more
intimate, a smaller-scale piece and different design elements were more
appropriate.
"The first really good look I had at it was at the installation," DeCesaris
said. He fabricated it in his garage in three segments. There was no real
opportunity for a full view.
This is not the sculptor's first outdoor commission. In Peoria, DeCesaris
executed one large abstract commission for Bradley College and is included in
the Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences' outdoor sculpture collection. Another
of his works was placed at Sacred Heart College in Belmont, North Carolina.
While the present commission is in the non-objective mode, the artist
presently leans toward the figure in many of his current life-size works.
"I was introduced to sculpture through the figure," he explains. While
attending college in North Carolina, he attended art classes at a near-by
girl's school and studied sculpture as an assistant to Dr. Grahm Weathers, a
local figurative sculptor.
During undergraduate school, DeCesaris carved more than 36 figurative pieces
from available (virtually free) wood sources. Even now, his abstract work
retains many of those organic figurative elements.
The large triangular piece at Purdue combines the sleekness of aluminum with
the warm tactile qualities of rough-hewn wood. It is an open form that allows
the viewer's gaze to figuratively venture through its central arch. Rather than
maintaining a hard-edged geometric context, the artist chose to emphasise many
of the gently curved organic contours. Were one to examine the shapes closely,
one might find some as akin to nature and anatomy as to mathematical geometry.
His choice of low-maintenance aluminum and white oak wood is for longevity.
Outside of expensive Honduras mahogany, more reasonably-priced white oak is one
of the best-weathering exterior woods. In the Purdue piece, the artist has
stained the oak to a darker tone that compliments the light aluminum.
Various segments of the aluminum are finshed to different degrees. This
affords a variety of surfaces and a calligraphy of tooling from the finishing
process. Similarly, the bolts used in the fabrication process become almost
decorative.
One cannot help but applaud Purdue's past efforts in building this outdoor
sculpture collection and hope that budgeting in a difficult time does not stunt
the project permanently.
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