Artist Douglas Kornfeld worked carefully to create a piece that would interact successfully with the ISU Student Recreation Center and enhance its overall design. He resolved to provide a sculpture with broad public appeal that would speak to everyone.
This work will still be here long after we are gone. This sculpture is not just something to make a place or building more interesting. Rather, Public Art is like a message in a bottle. In 100 years the works of art that we create today will be the heritage that tells the future who we were, what we were like, and most important what we cared about.
People looking at this artwork will see a culture that used very modern tools and materials to make its art. They will deduce that we employed artisans of all types who must have co-operated to bring a work of this size to life.
They will see that we enjoyed and celebrated sports but, more importantly, they will see a society that felt that, while it was important to cultivate the body, they mandated it imperative that we also nourish the soul. Those that come after us will learn that the citizens of Indiana in 2009 felt this so important that it used some of its treasure and resources to bring art to this community.
Doug’s words easily capture the spirit with which contemporary artists approach site-specific pieces for Art Spaces and other collections – the merging of art and community to tell a story, energize and inspire.
Additional Information:
Stainless Steel, 2009
23′ high, 18′ wide,
1′ 4″ deep
Located on the campus of Indiana State University at the Student Recreation Center, 601 North 6th Street.
Douglas Kornfeld lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Art Spaces gratefully acknowledges Indiana State University
Runner is part of the Permanent Art Collection of ISU.
wabashvalleyartspaces.com 