Notice anything different?
Image credit: Rajie Cook, Times Four, 2008, Painted metal, 51 x 34 x 23 3/4 inches, Gift of the Artist.
Imagine yourself walking through the Betz-Hankin gallery. You see a brightly colored sculpture to your left. You pause, it looks like something is different, but you are not quite sure and continue on your way. A short time later you pass it again and this time you know that something is different. Rest assured, you are not imagining things! The sculpture Times Four has been changed.
Times Four, by Rajie Cook, is a sculpture that consists of four large large addition/multiplication signs. Can you see them? Move around the work – it depends on the angle from which you view them. They can be stacked together in various configurations – several examples are in the image on the right. This results in a very dynamic sculpture.
How does the curator decide which configuration to use when they install the work? It would be difficult to rearrange the actual sculpture and the risk of damaging the work is always present. Fortunately, we have a maquette that can be used just for this purpose. What is a maquette you might ask? It is a model for a larger sculpture, created in order to visualize how it might look at a larger scale and to work out approaches and materials for how it might be made.
Next time you come by the Museum, be sure to see which configuration it is in! Tell us your favorite configuration in the comment box below.
Want to explore more sculpture activities in the Museum? Visit the links below.
- Sculpture Seek & Find
- Dancing Steelroots by Steve Tobin
- Raindrops by Allan Houser