The Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition & Exhibition is a national juried competition presented annually by the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. The Rosen has become an integral part of An Appalachian Summer Festival, the university’s annual multi-arts celebration presented by the Office of Arts & Cultural Programs.
Mike Roig, Yo-Yo’s Muse. 2005 Rosen Sculpture Competition Winner.
Sculptures
Yo-Yo’s Muse
Mike Roig
Carrboro, North Carolina
Steel and stainless steel
17′ tall x 22′ diameter of movement
Artist statement
I often listen to music while I work, all kinds of music. I don’t remember whether I was listening to Yo-Yo Ma when the big cello shape came into being, or whether the shape inspired me to go and find some of his recording. I do know that once the connection was made his renditions of Bach became background music to my journey of creation with this piece.
One way I think of sculpture is as visual music. Fashioned in the mind by the hand of its maker, it is an entity unto itself claiming a place in this work by fact of being. Like music its claim has the ephemeral quality of the non-utilitarian, and like music it is celebrated for its ability to heighten the senses and add savor to our lives. Like music it stands sentry at gateways to days remarkable for their qualities of surprise, thought, wonder, and contemplation, rather than merely marked in their passing quantities.
At its best sculpture and music will awaken in its viewer/listener a hunger that will only be fed by their own creative quests. I suppose that is the meaning of this piece’s title. There is small chance this sculpture will play muse to Mr. Ma himself, but I certainly hope it will play that role for others. Art inspires art, it’s a long and lovely lineage.
About the artist
Mike Roig lives and works in Carrboro, NC where he has been fashioning sculpture from recycled and new steel and stainless steel for more than twenty years. With his Author/Illustrator wife, Clay Carmichael, they maintain a home studio dedicated to a life of creative expression. His work is widely collected in North Carolina and beyond in both private and public collections.
For more information, visit www.mikeroig.com.
Board Caterpillar
Christopher Fennell
Washington DC
Wood and steel
6′ x 12′ x 11′
Artist statement
I build architectural skeletons from discarded objects. The elements in the structure swirl about a center and lean forward. The materials I use have been cast out by society, for example: demolished barns, broken bicycles and downed trees. I transform these objects into dynamic pieces and connect them into recognizable shapes of waves, tornados and pillars of fire. My work is site specific, taking advantage of the surrounding landscape and architecture. I place the sculpture for the maximum effect of discovery and scale.
For more information, visit www.cfennell.org.
Technophilia
Fr Austin Collins
Notre Dame, Indiana
Mixed media, Site Specific
Artist statement
This installation Technophilia is a reflection on our society’s pervasive use of technology, which has improved all of our lives in the efficient use of time, communication of ideas, and global awareness. Conversely, we have created instant obsolescence that has produced a glut of plastic viscera that promises to bury the earth.
About the artist
Professor Austin Collins is a sculptor known for his large-scale metal work that draws on and extends the Modernist tradition. His work has been featured in 137 exhibitions and is included in over 57 public and private collections. He has also given 35 public lectures on his work at various institutions across the country.
Collins’s area of practice includes public art, large outdoor sculpture, installation art and liturgical art. The theme of his creative work often deals with political and social issues.
Collins has exhibitions at Northwestern University, University of Tennessee, University of Alabama, University of California and the University Virginia. He currently has work on view at: University of Alabama, City of Huntsville, AL Sacred Heart University Fairfield, CT, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, Indiana University, South Bend, IN, City of Port Huron, MI, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC. Fernwood Botanical Garden & Nature Preserve, Niles, MI, Fredrik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI and Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH. His work has been reviewed and written about in publications such as Sculpture Magazine, The Chicago Sun-Times, New City Chicago, The Detroit News, The Indianapolis Starand Dialogue.
Collins Studied art at the University of California at Berkeley and received a M.F.A. in sculpture from Claremont Graduate University. Collins is currently a professor of sculpture at the University of Notre Dame, a position he has held for the past 29 years.
For more information, visit www3.nd.edu/~acollins.
Shape Shifters
Coral Lambert
New Orleans, Louisiana
Cast aluminum
8′ x 4′ x 4′
Artist statement
Central to my work is the exploration of the phenomenal and metaphysical presence of objects. My work investigates these dualities, such as the perceived ethereal in the physical, and how it can be expressed through sculpture.
Occasionally I use recognizable objects that have a specific reference to creation allegory, which act as apparatus to represent forces of containment, resonance and metamorphosis, such as the spiral. Careening between archaeology, astronomy, and science fiction the forms reference asteroids, standing stones and volcanoes.
As the ideas manifest themselves in the studio a conjunction takes place and the relationship between the ethereal and the physical is intensified through specific acts of making. Using the physically intense process of melting and casting metals I find a transformation of the ordinary to the extraordinary is enabled; the work is imbued with a quality of growth and form, which can only be brought about through a unique collection between nature and artist.
In Harmony
Hanna Jubran
Grimesland, North Carolina
Stainless Steel and bronze
About the artist
Hanna Jubran received his Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the University of Wisonsin-Milwaukee in 1983, and he currently a Sculpture Professor at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. Since 1996, he has participated in over 278 exhibitions, international symposia, national and international conferences, and over 50 lectures and workshops. His recent activities include a commission entitled “A Monument to a Century of Flight” in Kitty Hawk, NC. For every symposium Hanna has participated in, his sculpture has been kept as part of that town’s or organization’s permanent collection.
For more information, visit www.hannajubran.com.
To Slowly Start Back
John Richardson
Hamtramck, Michigan
Cast aluminum, paint and hardware
Artist statement
My work is both about and a form of communication. I investigate the limits of communication by delving into the kinesthetic, the linguistic, and the visual. The title of a work comes first and the resultant form a response to it. At its best the form “houses” the phrase while pointing out the inherent impossibility of doing so. The physical form is arrived at as I work while considering the title. By no means scientific, my creative process servers instead as a singular attempt to integrate what culture often separates. In my efforts to arrive at a more synthesized whole I have chosen the ellipse as a symbolic representation and visual shorthand for organs of communication- eyes, ears, mouth, nostrils, fingertips. I compose complex shapes by overlapping different sized ellipses while referencing bodily dimensions. All of my work explores the interstices between “representation” and “abstraction,” a fuzzy territory where categorical descriptions don’t quite fit.
Likewise, my work links the practices of painting and sculpture. I see my work as a conceptual extension of the relief sculpture tradition. I borrow element of both painting and sculpture, creating forms that exist in several dimensions while acknowledging planar (Cartesian) space with image-based flattened shapes. On the wall or floor, sometimes both, my reliefs echo and magnify the fundamental importance of planarity for historic and current human culture- architectural foundations, transportation systems, writing surfaces, projection screens, and monitors. In my view, a flat surface indicates an externalized human consciousness that as a transfer point between minds.
With a title, possibly some rough sketches, and a general direction, I begin with a full-scale drawing on thin wood. The drawn shapes are cut out into templates. Utilizing the templates, the shapes are transferred into a more full-bodied, slightly thicker substance with particular attention paid to the edge shape and qualities. Often I fabricates a wood pattern in pine or mahogany, then create a mold and cast the form in a metal or a pigmented rubber. The many steps of this process become embedded in residual marks, distortions, imperfections, and unforeseen spatial anomalies that carry through into the finished form. The form acts as a recording device for changing material states, energy input, isolation and release. Like a living organism, the object’s origins mysteriously present themselves in the current moment while alluding to time passing and a future with change inevitable.
Through this creative practice, I aim to restore a balance between touch, see, say, think and feel- at least for myself, but perhaps also for others who experience the work. Creating art, for me, involves a mental and physical process where the result occupies both fictive and actual space- simultaneously – while solidifying intangible, fleeting, or elusive inklings.
Requiem #2
Kevin Forest
Buckingham, Pennsylvania
Steel and river stone
10′ x 3′ 10″ x 3′ 10″
Artist statement
Having spent my entire life actively involved in the endeavor of farming, I am acutely aware of the often tenuous connection between man and his environment. I’ve always been fascinated by the lengths to which we’ll go in order to dominate and control nature – often with detrimental effects. Requiem II is my commentary on this relationship.
While I believe in the importance of visual stimulation, it is also my goal to inspire an active dialogue between the viewer and the piece. To this end, I have abandoned the cultural practice of passive entertainment and have instead chosen to allow the viewer to draw his/her own conclusions as to the inspiration and nature of my work.
Impact
Phil Proctor
Atlanta, Georgia
Steel and granite
Artist statement
I am primarily influenced by science, technology, physics, and the cosmos.
The two works on this site are conceptually based on the Principal behavior of matter in a non-restrictive environment such as zero gravity. Matter has a particular order and it will take a position of order assuming there are no outside forces or influences.
Physics is the study of how these forces such as gravity act on matter.
About the artist
Phil Proctor is an artist who has been living and working in southeast Atlanta for the past five years. Originally from south Mississippi, he holds a BFA from the University of Southern Mississippi and an MFA from East Carolina University. Proctor has permanent sculpture installations throughout the southeast as well as in other countries across Western Europe. In 2003 Phil was commissioned by a private development group in conjunction with the City of Atlanta and Marta to design and construct a public artwork, Linkage, which now stands at the Lindbergh City Center Marta station. In 2008 Proctor received another commission from the city of Atlanta to design and build a 22′ tall kinetic sculpture for South Bend Park scheduled for installation in mid 2009.
For more information, visit www.philproctor.com.
Armor
Shawn Morin
Bowling Green, Ohio
Granite and steel
Artist statement
“Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up your shield of faith, with which you can distinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” – Ephesians 6: 13-16, Holy Bible; NIV
About the artist
Just prior to receiving his B.F.A. in sculpture, Shawn Morin asked one of the professors he admired most: “So, do you think I have what it takes to be an artist”? Without missing a beat or bating an eye, he smiled and said, “NO, you don’t.” A few months later Morin entered the M.F.A. program as the University of Georgia in Athens as an “irregular undergrad,” which, when translated means, “we’ll let you enroll on a trial basis, take your money for a year and see what happens”. After successfully completing his first year in Athens, he was fully accepted into the masters program and granted an assistantship. However, a few weeks later he received a letter from the university stating that his assistantship was being revoked and that he was being asked to leave the university due to low GRE test scores. Nevertheless, Morin completed his M.F.A. the following year and at age 26 began his teaching career. Recently, he chaired a committee that abolished the GRE requirement for M.F.A. applicants at BGSU. The very next year, the number of graduate applications in the School of Art more than doubled.
Morin has just completed his nineteenth year as Head of the Sculpture Program at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He has participated in more than 140 exhibitions throughout the country, and his work can be seen in 15 permanent public collections, and is included in over 35 private collections. Since 1992, nearly every one of Morin’s own graduate students are currently teaching in high schools, colleges, and universities around the country.
For more information, visit shawnmorinsculpture.com.
Tamer of Wild Animals
Wayne Trapp
Vilas, North Carolina
Powder coated steel
Artist statement
For me, my art is a combination of things – two of which stand out. First, I’ve always believed it
necessary to have dreams, at times bigger than life, then to make those dreams become a reality (many of my large corporate sculptures are examples.) To look at a raw piece of marble, or a sheet of steel and dream of what it could be, then to transform it from a dream to a tangible form, this is what I live for. Secondly, to always remain curious and surprised by all things and thoughts. This very curiosity propels me to invent, to make, to do and to create my art. There is a joy of innocent wonder that children possess which sadly enough we tend to lose, as we grow older. Why? How? And Wow? We tend to shred our dreams and have preconceived notions we learn and we accept as adults. I try to look a the light, colors, and the shapes of the world around me and turn this into art.
I believe that it’s important to have an abstract sculpture as a part of a growing community. Children especially, as well adults would be influenced in ways that we may never know. For more than 35 years I have created and installed sculptures around the United States and other countries that are as strong standing and have gracefully remained valid works of art since the day they were installed.
About the artist
Wayne Trapp, the sculptor, has worked in stone and steel for years, creating lavish–even colossal–outdoor pieces for corporate clients and smaller more particular pieces for his private clientele. His hands, his shoulders, are sore and sensitive with the scars of sculpting, but he can no more give it up than he can give up breathing. He avows that now he sculpts only by commission, but if a fine piece of stone presents itself or a flash of metal catches his eye or a woman turns her head just so, or if the moon is right, well… the dance begins. With unbridled energy and an insatiable passion for everything that crosses his path, Wayne forever seeks interchange, new ground, and a good time.
Wayne lives and operates his studio out of Vilas, N.C., and has works in extensive corporate, institutional and private collections across the U.S. and internationally.
For more information, visit www.waynetrapp.com.
Juror’s statement
The Nineteenth Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition presents artworks by ten artists from across the United States that have chosen sculpture as their primary visual language. Whether by using stainless and mild steel, as in Mike Roig’s kinetic Yo-Yo’s Muse, or wood and steel, as in the playful Board Caterpillar by Christopher Fennell, each of these artists offers a unique and individual perspective.
The selection of these sculptures was done via slides, which is ultimately the most practical way to see so many large scale pieces. However, I’m pleased to say that upon seeing them in person I was even more impressed with the quality and diversity of the work.
Appalachian State University and the Turchin Center for the Arts should be applauded for the Nineteenth Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition and its role in making contemporary sculpture more accessible to the public by bringing it directly into the lives of the community.
I would like to thank Hank Foreman for the opportunity to select this exhibition, Brook Greene for her support and hospitality, and Tasha Nunn for her assistance. I’d also like to express my sincere gratitude to the artists for enriching our lives with their sculpture.
Brooke Barrie
Director & Curator, Grounds for Sculpture
About the juror
Grounds For Sculpture is a sculpture park and museum in Hamilton, New Jersey, which celebrated its Tenth Anniversary in 2002. Brooke Barrie holds a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Tulane University. An exhibited artist, Barrie was the Academic Director of the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture in New Jersey for fifteen years. She has been with Grounds For Sculpture since its inception.
In addition to her work at Grounds For Sculpture, she is the author of Contemporary Outdoor Sculpture, published by Rockport Publishers, Inc. She has worked extensively in the field of contemporary sculpture as a consultant, juror, lecturer and curator, most recently for sculpture exhibitions at Sarasota Season of Sculpture, Sarasota, FL; the Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL; the Gallery of South Orange, South Orange, NJ; the Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland, OH; the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI; and Pier Walk, Chicago, IL.
About the curators
Hank Foreman
Hank Foreman serves as Assistant Vice Chancellor of Arts and Cultural Affairs as well as Director and Chief Curator of the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts for Appalachian State University. He obtained his M.A. in Art Education from Appalachian, having completed undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, with a concentration in Painting and Sculpture. His duties include the administrative responsibilities for An Appalachian Summer Festival, the Performing Arts Series, Farthing Auditorium and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts.
During his tenure at Appalachian State, Foreman has taken part in the organization of numerous exhibitions, including the associated lectures, symposia, and publications. He has worked closely with the university’s Department of Art, and a wide variety of other campus and community groups, to make gallery resources available to all. One of his earliest exhibitions at Appalachian, Views From Ground Level: Art and Ecology in the Late Nineties, brought internationally acclaimed artists, historians, and critics to the campus and received national attention.
Foreman is also an exhibiting studio artist, and participates in regional and national conferences as a presenter and panelist.
Brook Bower
Brook Bower serves as the assistant curator and administrator for the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts and its staff. She received a BS in Art Management and a BFA in Ceramics from Appalachian State University’s Department of Art in 2001. Bower’s professional activities include curating exhibitions, lecturing, consulting for competition management, serving as a juror for local competitions, mentoring future art management students and managing several national art competitions including the Rosen Sculpture Competition, the Halpert Biennial and the Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition. Bower also serves as the Acting Registrar, providing collections management support for the Turchin Center’s Permanent Collection containing 1,481+ objects and managing the Intra-Campus Loan Program.
Following her undergraduate degrees, she has concentrated on furthering her education by attending conferences, courses and workshops expanding her knowledge of curatorship, exhibition design, and collections management. Bower recently participated in the 2011 SEMC Jekyll Island Management Institute and is currently seeking a Master of Visual Arts Administration, with a focus in curatorial studies, at New York University in New York City. She serves on multiple committees that concentrate on community enhancement utilizing the visual arts and serves as the faculty advisor for the Arts Management Organization (AMO). In addition, Bower is an active exhibiting artist.