Outdoor Sculpture Collection

Visit the Web site for the Outdoor Sculpture Collection at http://westerngallery.wwu.edu/sculpture.shtml.

April 01, 2008
"Skyviewing Sculpture," 1969 (1.51 MB)
© Isamu Noguchi

Painted iron plate 14' h. x 17' w. Art allowance from Miller Hall construction funds. © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum. While Noguchi's sculpture can be described as a tilted cube with cutouts on three sides, its special qualities are weightlessness and its continuing sense of space. Rising on brick piers, the sculpture invites the viewer into its interior. Inside, the viewer can measure himself against the scale of the cube and sense the uplifting of the sculpture as he looks up and out towards the moving sky. Since in Japan the circular disk represents the sun and is a symbol of creation, and since the viewer is part of the sculpture, Noguchi provides here a subtle union of two creative forces - man and nature. Photo credit: David Scherrer
March 26, 2008
"Skyviewing Sculpture," 1969 (9.54 MB)
© Isamu Noguchi

Painted iron plate 14' h. x 17' w. Art allowance from Miller Hall construction funds. © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum. While Noguchi's sculpture can be described as a tilted cube with cutouts on three sides, its special qualities are weightlessness and its continuing sense of space. Rising on brick piers, the sculpture invites the viewer into its interior. Inside, the viewer can measure himself against the scale of the cube and sense the uplifting of the sculpture as he looks up and out towards the moving sky. Since in Japan the circular disk represents the sun and is a symbol of creation, and since the viewer is part of the sculpture, Noguchi provides here a subtle union of two creative forces - man and nature.
April 01, 2008
"Stadium Piece," 1979-80 (1.25 MB)
© Bruce Nauman

Concrete, tinted white, 13' h. x 25' w. x 50' l. To Bruce Nauman, art is a philosophical inquiry; he is interested in "investigating the possibilities of what art might be." He mixes up categories (inside/outside, here/there, public/private, etc.) and reopens questions which we thought were settled. Besides providing a seating area for the recreational areas, the art work could signify the student's education about how to communicate and how to perform in a larger environment. Photo credit: David Scherrer
April 01, 2008
"Stadium Piece," 1979-80 (799.44 KB)
© Bruce Nauman

Concrete, tinted white, 13' h. x 25' w. x 50' l. To Bruce Nauman art is a philosophical inquiry; he is interested in "investigating the possibilities of what art might be." He mixes up categories (inside/outside, here/there, public/private, etc.) and reopens questions which we thought were settled. Besides providing a seating area for the recreational areas, the art work could signify the student's education about how to communicate and how to perform in a larger environment. Photo credit: David Scherrer
April 01, 2008
"Stone Enclosure: Rock Rings," 1977-78 (1.84 MB)
© Nancy Holt

Brown Mountain Stone, 10'h. with outer ring 40' d. and inner ring 20' d. Siting was critical to Nancy Holt's work, which is tied to the terrain of this campus, the natural beauty of the Northwest and to Bellingham as a seaport community. Previous to Western's work, Holt had designed work which aligned itself to the sun. At Western her rock enclosure is mapped on earth according to the celestial layout of the north star; that is, the four arches, running north and south, are calculated from the north star which is used by coastal navigators. The circular holes referring to points on the compass give a more horizontal direction out onto the landscape. Photo credit: David Scherrer
April 01, 2008
"Stone Enclosure: Rock Rings," 1977-78 (2.13 MB)
© Nancy Holt

Brown Mountain Stone, 10'h. with outer ring 40' d. and inner ring 20' d. Siting was critical to Nancy Holt's work, which is tied to the terrain of this campus, the natural beauty of the Northwest and to Bellingham as a seaport community. Previous to Western's work, Holt had designed work which aligned itself to the sun. At Western her rock enclosure is mapped on earth according to the celestial layout of the north star; that is, the four arches, running north and south, are calculated from the north star which is used by coastal navigators. The circular holes referring to points on the compass give a more horizontal direction out onto the landscape. Photo credit: David Scherrer
May 01, 2008
"The Islands of the Rose Apple Tree Surrounded by the Oceans of the World for You, Oh My Darling," 1987 (3.86 MB)
© Alice Aycock

Rather than forcing the viewer to traverse the structure, as in Serra's sculpture, Alice Aycock emphasized a bird's eye view. Inspired by tantric drawings of the origin of the world, landscapes and various views of heaven and hell, she focused on the sacred mountain Meru which is at the center of the universe and which has many different plateaus and islands. She transformed a 2-D metaphor into a 3-D theatrical structure. The fountain with its flowing water sets up a dialogue between the natural and the artificial or fantastic world. Photo credit: Dave Wheeler
April 02, 2008
"The Man Who Used to Hunt Cougars for Bounty," 1972 (3.94 MB)
© Richard Beyer

Granite, 5 1/2' h. Beyer and his assistants brought the granite from California to the campus and worked on the site for approximately three months. Inspired by a local tale, he portrays the "ghostly" reunion of a man and a cougar as well as the relationship between the hunt and the hunted. Photo credit: Matthew Anderson
March 26, 2008
"Totem," 1962 (2.40 MB)
© Norman Warsinske

Steel Filigree 12' h. Art allowance from Humanities Building construction funds. Warsinske was not thinking of Northwest totem poles when he executed his sculpture but rather a form symbolizing a tower and/or torch. The light filigree patterns, cut by a torch, gradually ascend in scale towards the top and create a type of "architectural jewelry."
May 01, 2008
"Two-Part Chairs, Right Angle Version (a Pair)," designed 1983, fabricated 1987 (2.21 MB)
© Scott Burton

Burton first earned a reputation with performance and installation work in the 1970s. His "Two-Part Chairs, Right Angle Version (a Pair)," 1983-87, represent his concept of furniture as sculpture, which evolved out of his need for settings for his "behavioral tableaux" where actors were involved in staged confrontations. From his use of conventional household furniture as well as modern furniture design, he evolved to rock carved chairs and interlocking granite chairs reminiscent of minimalist sculpture. Known for transforming the idea of public art, Burton integrated functional design into fine art. As guardian figures of the front entrance to Haggard Hall, the chairs share the hierarchical space with the Native American totem (Lummi Nation) on the formal staircase leading to the university's library. Photo credit: Dave Wheeler