Title: Glyph, by Donald Haskin
Location: University of Arizona, South of parking garage.
Details: Brushed stainless steel.
He Said:
This piece has moved around a bit on campus, and now it's off to the
side of the main plaza. Prior to that it sat in an empty concrete basin
because they never got around to filling the base with
rocks.
It's as though the University received a gift and has to keep it around
in case the donor shows up, but doesn't really want to make the effort
to showcase
Glyph, and that's
a shame.
To me,
Glyph appears as a
cross between a vaguely human-shaped
petroglyph and a piece of machinery sprouting rocker arms and seated on
a cam shaft; the juxtaposition with the saguaro makes it all the
better. A semi-mechanical man next an ancestral spirit in plant form,
both standing tall with arms reaching for the bright Tucson sky.
She Said:
My partner is once again waxing poetic with his description of this
piece! However, that's fine, since art inevitably evokes varying
responses from different people. I like
Glyph, also, for the way it ties
the past and present together, with its Native American petroglyph
heritage and machine-age stainless steel body. It would be fun to see
the piece as the artist intended it to be displayed, surrouned by rocks
etched with petroglyphs based on those created by earlier inhabitants
of the Tucson area. It's doubtful that will happen at this point, but
it's good to imagine it, just the same.
Copyright © 2004 S. Halversen. All rights
reserved.