Herron School of Art and Design to Install Jill Viney Work
Herron School of Art and Design will install New York Artist Jill Viney's "Barrow" on Wednesday, May 7, 2008, at approximately noon at the northeast entrance to Eskenazi Hall, weather permitting. The outdoor sculpture is a silvery hemisphere with two archways into a dim interior. The piece is molded fiberglass with a double wall. Sandwiched in between on mesh, one side has been developed darkly, the other shiny and light.
"Barrow" is a word used to describe a prehistoric burial mound used by Celtic people in northern France, England, Scotland and Ireland. Also common were groups on menhirs or huge upright standing stones.
Jill Viney shares, "I visited Ireland a couple of years ago to see excavated circular mounds. They occur all over but look like richly green hillocks. Around these ancient stones and buildings a certain kind of energy comes up from the earth through one's feet. It was possible to feel mystery and the work of others before.
"At one of their more famous sites in the Boyne Valley, Ireland, a large round barrow stood. Its walls were made of shaped stones and no mortar, dry walling. The entrance to this passage tomb was lined with dolmens. The passage darkened as we walked to a central round space. Empty niches were made in the mud wall. A rounded roof had been made by dry walling at a date of approximately 5,000 BC. A guide's light was extinguished, and the space was very black and the silence very loud.
"We were startled by a beam of light that entered the chamber behind us and high overhead, divided the floor in half and ended at the center niche. This was a demonstration of what would normally occur on June 21st, the summer solstice and longest day of the year. Charting paths of sun and moon exactly was common to early peoples everywhere. A hidden slot had been made just above the top of the door."
Jill Viney was born in a coastal town in California. She spent many hours among the rocks and tide pools. After moving to New York as an artist, she learned to dive on a short Caribbean holiday.
As advances in technology have provided the power to see farther into space and deeper into ocean waters; and robot spacecraft and submersibles have photographed these new visions, making them accessible to the public, Viney has sought to express those new visions in her sculpture.
Early on, she worked with enclosed space in plexi or fiberglass; a sculpture that occupied mass but also contained space. This space was structured to give the viewer changing perceptions of light and color as she or he moved around the sculpture. Her newest work outdoors follows that interest of color, light, and space, but adds containment in a new form.
The piece will be on display at Herron School of Art and Design for two years.
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