Pre-Write 2

The name of my sculpture is Arietta II. It was created by Catherine Ferguson in 1998. It is located directly north of the Sheldon Art Museum in front of a small parking lot. The ground slopes downward after the cement of the parking lot ends and the sculpture is placed in the middle of this plot of grass. There are three trees and some evergreen bushes that surround this section of grass which makes it seem like it is surrounded more by nature than buildings. The sculpture is made of painted black steel. There are a series of abstract birds that have been cut out of steel and welded together to produce this sculpture.

No two of the birds that make this piece of art are alike. The birds were bent and shaped to form a pyramid shaped vase. By the way it was constructed, with each individual bird connected to the one above, below and to the side of it, it is hard to determine what the black steel objects are in the sculpture at first glance. You notice more the positive/negative space relationship that the structure has. If you look at Arietta II as a whole, it is not obvious that the shapes that make it up are birds. However, if you look at it for an extended amount of time, you start to pick out each bird.

There are 12 birds that are molded together to make the statue. The birds are all flying upwards like they are coming out of the ground. It almost looks like they are escaping from underground. When you take into consideration the shape that these birds are making by the way they are bent and welded together, instead it looks like they are protecting or holding something inside.

The way Catherine Ferguson has arranged these birds within her composition creates a sort of visual hierarchy. The birds get larger and more distinctly recognizable as birds as you move up through the sculpture. There is also more space between each bird the closer you get to the top. Some of their wings are left free instead of being a connecting element and they point upward towards the sky. All of the birds’ heads also are positioned in an upwards direction. It seems that the sculpture wants your vision to end in the sky which is interesting since you would normally think of birds being free to fly in the sky but instead these birds are stuck frozen in time, yet they look like they have the intent to fly away.

It was hard to pick out a distinguished focal point in this sculpture. I was drawn in particular to a single bird that is located in the upper half of this piece of art. It is on the front or east side of it and it is the most realistic looking out of all the birds. The space left open around it forms a slight frame around its upper half of its body. This may or may not have been an intentional focal point of the her piece of work, but as a viewer I interpreted it this way.