September Issue 2001
USC Bicentennial Sculpture Exhibit Hosts Art Outdoors in Columbia, SC
An outdoor sculpture exhibit at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC, is bringing art to the outdoors and challenging visitors to view art in a new environment.
The USC Bicentennial outdoor sculpture exhibit features seven sculptures ranging in height, material and content. The works, located on the grounds of McMaster College at the corner of Senate and Pickens streets, was coordinated by art department chairman Robert Lyon. They will remain on display through Summer 2002.
"We wanted to infuse culture into a living environment not confined by walls," says Lyon who wants to pursue other outdoor sculpture exhibitions at USC. "Viewing art outdoors and seeing how it relates to the environment is very different than viewing art in a gallery. Sculpture always has challenged our imagination and sense to rethink the visible and to comprehend a connection previously invisible to us."
Three of the seven sculptures are by SC artists. They include Shaun Cassidy, an art professor at Winthrop University, Michael Hale, an assistant art professor at Benedict College, and Bernadette Vielbig, a visiting art professor at USC. Remaining artists include Gregory Elliott, Louisiana State University; Fisher Stolz, Bradley University in Peoria, IL; Greg Shelnutt, NC School of Arts in Winston-Salem, NC; and Michael Warrick from Little Rock, AR.
On the Pickens Street side of McMaster rests Cassidy's twin concrete structures with toys imbedded in them. The Senate Street side boasts large metal sculptures form Stolz, Vielbig and Hale, and when visitors turn the corner of Henderson Street they will see Shelnutt's unusual living sculpture. "Four Elements Topiary" marries steel, copper, wood, water and growing corn in a bed of earth.
For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings or call USC's art department at 803/777-4184. For more info about USC's Bicentennial, call 803/777-1801 or on the web at (http://www.sc.edu/bicentennial).
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