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City of Sculpture one step closer to ‘A Conversation in Six Parts’
July 8 has been set for the installation of “A Conversation in Six Parts,” a new sculpture for the large planter in the middle of Journal Square in downtown Hamilton.
Eric David Laxman, a sculptor from Valley Cottage, N.Y., was in Hamilton on Tuesday, June 23, to check on the forms that have been created for the pouring of a concrete base for the work, which was chosen from more than 40 proposals submitted from an international call for entries.
Go to the jump for more information about Eric David Laxman
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“A Conversation in Six Parts” will consist of six large curlicue shapes, three of brushed stainless steel and three in bronze, arranged in a seemingly random order.
“The forms are great,” Laxman said after taking extensive measurements. “The only surprise is that the planter dimensions aren’t the same as what’s on the plans.”
That is, Laxman designed the work based on the original diagrams provided by the city of Hamilton, but somewhere along the way, the dimensions changed and the space is eight feet narrower than he expected.
“Fortunately, it won’t effect the arrangement of the individual pieces, but sculpture will fill the space more and look much bigger,” he said. “It’s really going to be interesting to see how the final sculpture interacts with this space.”
Indeed, the issue of scale has been a constant, but pleasant, surprise for Laxman, who created the design on a 1/24 scale.
“I started with the biggest one,” which is about 11 feet high, Laxman said, “and when we stood it up, it seemed a lot bigger. When you have a model this small, you can see it all at once, but it’s really hard to project yourself into that situation, so it’s a totally different experience to actually walk around these pieces.”
Laxman said that he and his crew are currently working on the last of the six pieces, and that it shouldn’t take more than one day for the actual installation.
The installation is being supervised by Robert Saurber of the Hamilton firm Saurber Construction. Landscaping will be designed by Jon Doepker of Lakeview Nursery to complement the sculpture, according to City of Sculpture spokesperson Sue Samoviski.
The commission has been funded by the City of Sculpture’s fundraising activities, including IceFest, and private donations, Samoviski said. The committee works with the city to help find appropriate places for art and to prepare the sites, but no taxpayer money has been spent on this commission.
From Laxman’s studio:
Eric David Laxman says he didn’t plan to be a sculptor; he went to college as a chemistry and pre-med major at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.
“I chose Tufts because they had a relationship with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (in Boston), and (I) could take art classes there,” he said.
He took several drawing and other art classes as an undergraduate, but in his senior year he took a stone carving class that inspired him to change majors.
“I had been to Italy when I was younger and saw the works of Michelangelo,” he said. “I was very inspired by the old traditions and how his work epitomized the skill that it takes. I felt a connection with that like nothing else I’d ever experienced.”
His family, however, was none too pleased.
“I come from a big Jewish family, so I had a lot of people trying to convince me that I could do both, be a doctor and make art on the side,” he said. “But I didn’t buy into it. I just said, ‘I don’t know any better, so I’m going to follow my art.’”
After changing his major, he also stayed around Boston for a few years to study at the School of the Museum of Fine Art. In 1992, he moved to Valley Cottage, N.Y., about 30 miles north of Manhattan, to begin his career in art.
Laxman still uses stone in some of his work, but more often than not, he works in metal these days. “A Conversation in Six Parts” uses some themes that Laxman has used in previous work, but in different contexts. This is the largest commission he’s received to date.
The proposed sculpture will be in six pieces, three in bronze and three in stainless steel, forming giant curlicues that touch and interact with each other. He was also inspired by the way Journal Square is set up as a public meeting place.
“Abstract sculpture is a great opportunity to create dialogue,” he said. “People see different things, and I thought about mixing materials together so that it creates a metaphor for urban life.”
He said he also found inspiration in Hamilton’s public arts projects and the City of Sculpture organization, citing it as a rarity.
“I was impressed by the values of the community,” he said. “It’s rare for a city to recognize the value of art as a way to define a community and to bring people together.”
Originally published Dec. 21, 2008
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