1999: Everyone’s Everest – by Barry Hehemann

1999: Everyone’s Everest – by Barry Hehemann

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Everyone’s Everest

1999

Steel and granite / 11’4″ x 9′ x 11’H

Location: Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois.

The title refers to the mountains that are made in everyday life. Consideration of our ‘Everest’ suggests folly, fantasy, and the absurdity of self reflexive endeavors. Texts have been laser-cut into the threads of the stair. Each word has been selected from texts referring to mountain climbing especially ascents to Mt. Everest, that has been transcendent experience for some, tragedies for others.
The words are: Beyond, Attempt, Yield, Doubt, Demand, Amusement, Condition, Fantasy, Interpret, Solace, Claim, Discovery, Beyond.

1999 Right Angles # 11 – by Gunnar Theel

1999 Right Angles #11 – by Gunnar Theel

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Right Angles # 11 – by Gunnar Theel


1999

Steel / 9′-6″H

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Derick Malkemus working on Gunnar Theel sculpture

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The sculpture is part of Gunnar Theel’s Right Angles Series, which includes:
Three L-shaped units, Nereid and the Structure

THREE L-SHAPED UNITS, each composed of two steel plates joined at right angles, lean against and into each other, and create an assemblage of angled planes and spaces articulated by light and shadow, and put in motion by the viewer drawn around the sculptures.

NEREID sculptures are part of the Right Angles series. They are inspired by the marble Nereid statues and their “wind swept drapery” at The British Museum, London.

The STRUCTURE sculptures are inspired by architecture, in particular the house as vessel, container, body. Again, the angled planes diffuse the border between the exterior and interior surfaces, and the viewer drawn around the oxidized steel sculptures discovers openings like doors, windows, and solid walls.

In the words of Gunnar Theel…
MY ART is influenced by architecture. The right angle in the physical world, and its inherent sensations of equilibrium and quiet are my reference points as I work towards the finished sculpture by “simplification of design and refinement of proportions”. (Mies van der Rohe).