Kathryn Spadafora
Equinox Staff
As the leaves fell and snow drifted to the ground, Keene State College students may have noticed another change around campus recently sculptures. Placed around campus, the sculptures are the product of students taking Sculpture I. Contract Lecturer Miles Warner teaches Sculpture I, Foundations Experience and Moducal Wood Design. Warner said, “The sculptures are from our beginning sculpture courses. There are three finished projects each semester and are based additive processes in steel and wood.”
Part of the challenge of the assignment, according to Warner, was for the students to tailor their art for the specific location and environment for it be be on display. Knowing their art would be presented outside, students had to design their art for public exhibition, and the outside space in which it would be placed. “Since the work will be presented outside, it forces students to plan in a site specific manner. A lot of the pieces are designed for exactly that spot,” Warner added. “When the work goes outside, it can get dwarfed by the endless outdoors, so scale becomes a very important problem to solve as well.”
Warner also discussed the elaborate process which went into making the sculptures: “We break down images using the principles of design and transform this visual data using abstraction to create the sculptures.”
For the students in Sculpture I, the project is an opportunity for artistic expression, and to showcase their work to their fellow Keene State students, as well as a cultivation of a semester’s work.
The process not only challenged students, but let their artistry shine, according to Warner: “We play music, make a mess, and then get to show the hard work to the campus a couple times a year. We are totally grateful for the opportunity to show the work outdoors, it’s like our own sculpture garden at times.”
Through the students in Sculpture I, art is on full display at Keene State college this fall season. Students may look around even up in the trees to admire what their fellow classmates have created.
Kathryn Spadafora can be contacted at kspadafora@kscequionx.com
