Woodland Counterpoint
> Commissioned for Davies Center at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire through the Wisconsin Arts Board's Percent for Art Program
Located on the third level of Davies Center
Woodland Counterpoint is a 14-foot-long, 25-inch-high bronze wall relief that incorporates five Woodland Indian designs with species of woodland trees native to Wisconsin. The sculpture was commissioned for Davies Center, which occupies a site that was once the historic meeting grounds of the Dakota and Ojibwe people.
The sculpture is made up of nine separately cast sections, which alternate intricately textured forest images with geometric designs selected from works by the major tribes of Wisconsin — Menominee, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe and Oneida. The highly polished tribal designs border four large sculptural collages of leaves and bark, and echo many of the natural patterns found in the larger panels.
Each panel began with the construction of a pattern — a three-dimensional model built of wax, clay and wood — using impressions of leaves and other natural materials. Each of the four large panels required more than 500 hours of pattern work.
Silica sand, mulled together with resin, was packed around the finished pattern. After a rigid shell had formed, the pattern was removed and the sand mold reassembled. Each large pattern required a complex seven-piece mold weighing more than 750 pounds. Molten manganese bronze was poured into the sand mold; when it cooled, the casting was shaken loose and cut away from the gating. The processes of grinding, machining, cleaning, buffing and coloring followed.
The sculpture was installed in the original Davies Center in December 1984, and reinstalled in the new Davies Center in July 2012.
Woodland Counterpoint, 1984
cast bronze
25" x 14' x 5"
850 lbs.
> Archived web page about Woodland Counterpoint
Located on the third level of Davies Center
Woodland Counterpoint is a 14-foot-long, 25-inch-high bronze wall relief that incorporates five Woodland Indian designs with species of woodland trees native to Wisconsin. The sculpture was commissioned for Davies Center, which occupies a site that was once the historic meeting grounds of the Dakota and Ojibwe people.
The sculpture is made up of nine separately cast sections, which alternate intricately textured forest images with geometric designs selected from works by the major tribes of Wisconsin — Menominee, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe and Oneida. The highly polished tribal designs border four large sculptural collages of leaves and bark, and echo many of the natural patterns found in the larger panels.
Each panel began with the construction of a pattern — a three-dimensional model built of wax, clay and wood — using impressions of leaves and other natural materials. Each of the four large panels required more than 500 hours of pattern work.
Silica sand, mulled together with resin, was packed around the finished pattern. After a rigid shell had formed, the pattern was removed and the sand mold reassembled. Each large pattern required a complex seven-piece mold weighing more than 750 pounds. Molten manganese bronze was poured into the sand mold; when it cooled, the casting was shaken loose and cut away from the gating. The processes of grinding, machining, cleaning, buffing and coloring followed.
The sculpture was installed in the original Davies Center in December 1984, and reinstalled in the new Davies Center in July 2012.
Woodland Counterpoint, 1984
cast bronze
25" x 14' x 5"
850 lbs.
> Archived web page about Woodland Counterpoint