Tucson's Public Art
Sonoran

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.

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Copyright © 2004 S. Halversen. All rights reserved.