National Outdoor Sculpture
Competition & Exhibition
Sculpture artists from across the nation applied to the sixth annual National Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition, a component of the 2011 North Charleston Arts Festival. Presented by the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department, this unique, eleven month exhibition offers established and emerging artists the opportunity to display their thought provoking, extraordinary sculptures, as well as compete for up to $17,250 in Exhibition Honorariums and Awards. Fourteen sculptures were selected by the juror, Sylvie Fortin, editor-in-chief, Art Papers. Once installed at the exhibition site, the juror then selected pieces to receive awards for Best in Show, 2nd Place, and Honorable Mention.
The fourteen sculptures selected for exhibition are by fourteen artists from nine states. Division I includes ten sculptures that are anchored to a concrete pad or in the grass. Division II includes four sculptures secured to a concrete pedestal.
Sculpture sites are located throughout the picturesque Riverfront Park, 1001 Everglades Avenue, North Charleston, SC. The park is set on the banks of the beautiful Cooper River. Visitors may enjoy ten acres of walking paths, a performance pavilion, picnic shelter, a fishing pier and boardwalk, an oversized sandbox, and children’s play fountain. The historic site is centered in the Noisette District, the largest urban redevelopment project ever undertaken in the US. North Charleston Riverfront Park is open daily and admission and parking are free.
Artist Statements
Paris Alexander
Raleigh, NC
Nemesis carved limestone
Having learned to carve stone when I was a child, I now have over thirty years experience. My interest is comfortably in both figurative and abstract work. The greatest potential of a stone carving is the intrinsic process of its creation.
Maintaining an innate sense of flexibilities, which has been acquired through over a thousand completed carvings, allows me to exploit the varied texture and color of a natural material. My figures are often left captives of the stone from which they emerge. The textural variances of my abstractions are a balance of deep gouging cuts, fine tooth chisel marks, and at times a smooth polished surface. The chisel marks glitter and change under the influence of natural light, as does the stone’s overall color according to humidity. I have even begun to leave my figures ‘wrapped’ in chisel marks. I have also been experimenting in ’automatic/action’ carving, which I carve with no preconceived idea.
Carl Billingsley
Ayden, NC
Polychrome Wedge painted steel
Prism Arc is a series that explores the dynamics of color. Different sections of each sculpture are painted in primary colors is such a way that the reflections from these areas creates secondary colors. Each sculpture is constantly changing color as the sun tracks through the sky. They are ideally suited to express the concept of color dynamic. These sculptures are designed to present a completely different shape and color arrangement from each angle of view and to provide an ever-changing dynamic of form and color throughout 360 degrees of space.
Kevin Eichner
Hilton Head, SC
Devinusrecycled steel
Devinus is the latest in a sculptural series through which the artist has been trying to reveal the truth of the material and the process, while at the same time exploring different ways to stretch and manipulate that truth. The series began in a moment of exhaustion and uncertainty when, after hours of trying to force the I-beam to do something, it seemed to breathe, and that breathe opened up the beam, they began gesturing towards the sky, started to blossom. As the sculpture evolved and grew, the materials began to intertwine and interact: the industrial nature, the human nature, and Mother Nature.
Jenn Garrett
Gainesville, FL
Thrive stainless and mild steel
Temporarily removed due to damage
My work is inspired by natural forms. The familiar natural forms are constructed through an architectural approach, working with lines and planes to create volumetric forms. I often use architectural materials, such as steel and aluminum, for their durable, rigid qualities. The architectural treatment of joints, such as the use of slits, blots, and welds is an analytical approach to the irregular joints found in the natural world. During the development of the piece, the natural form is repeatedly analyzed to develop a more symbolic, pure form. In my recent work, a single sculpture will consist of several forms, each frozen at a particular moment of growth. When placed together, the forms convey relationships between the forms, some creating a sense of family and others a simple interaction between two forms.
Craig Gray
Hiram, ME
Rock Lobster fieldstone
I use stone to interrupt what I see. The choice of subject combined with the color, grain, and the finished texture of the sculpture embodies my emotions at a particular place and time. My sculptures are simple fluid forms which give common ground for people of all ages to enjoy art together. The one single term I think which best embodies my work is FUN!
Phillip Hathcock
Cary, NC
Wind Harp slate, steel, aluminum
BEST OF SHOW
With each sculpture my primary focus is to preserve the geological formations of natural stones and to present natural stone sculpture in the public arena that transforms the space it occupies in differing and meaningful ways for a broad audience. Wind Harp is comprised of one large slate rock enhanced only by aluminum rods for soft subtle sound reminiscent of the harp.
Karl Lipscomb
Ash Grove, MO
China Grove reclaimed pine
As a child I spent many summer days on my grandparents’ farm. Being particularly small for my age and not of much use as a farm hand, I had plenty of time to explore the farm: the fields, pastures, creeks and ponds to the sheds, outbuildings, barns and silos. But the things I found most intriguing were the junk piles that were like burial grounds. That is where I discovered the out-dated and broken-beyond-repair items that farmers seem to accumulate over the years: old wagons, plows, thrashers and other unidentified equipment were laid out side by side as if in their final resting places.
These relics told stories of forgotten uses and gave evidence to once having greater value and though I had no idea what the original use had been, each rusted piece of metal and weathered chunk of wood had a story to tell. Wood that is alternately weathered rough then worn smooth again by hand, farm animals, or even bales of hay has sensuous qualities. These qualities are often enhanced with juxtaposition metals which show reflective cycles of oxidation and polish. These are the visual and tactile qualities that inspire me in my sculptural work.
George Long
Roswell, GA
Gift Basket wood, tar, steel
Meshing an implies functional history with the obvious natural history, I employed traditional coppersmithing techniques, adding bucket staves to a Juniper stump. Covering the piece in tar added further manipulation of implied function.
Doug McAbee
Spartanburg, SC
Ethel’s Daughter painted steel
HONORABLE MENTION
The commute to work. A conversation with my wife. The funny thing my three year old did this morning. This is where my ideas come from. Bold colors, shiny surfaces, and whimsical imagery continue to be essential elements in my drawings and sculpture. I am interested in the power of color and image in visual communication and how a viewer’s personal experiences will affect how they interpret those colors and images. My artwork often dips into serious or sinister subject matter, always does so with a sense of humor, a shiny color, a spoonful of sugar. My sculptures are made of hollow, hand-formed, welded steel. I grind and sand the surfaces to provide a seamless, clean presentation before powder coating the steel. This is a physically demanding and patience-testing process. While each color and image used in a drawing or a sculpture holds a significant personal meaning for me. I am interested in how these colors and images will almost always take on new meanings in the eyes of the viewer.
Kenneth Thompson
Blissfield, MI
Split Too fabricated steel
2ND PLACE
I have long felt that profound art contained a high level of spiritual content, not necessarily that of religion, but that of the ‘spirit of man,’ a spirit defined by truth and honor. My sculpture is based on this kind of spirituality.
Beyond content, my sculpture concentrates on the fundamental issue of form and how negative space defines it as well as the techniques employed to create it.
Robert Turan
Earlton, NY
Windsail II stainless steel, concrete
With a cinematic eye and a welders arc I bring light, motion, and mass to my work.
I use steel, stone, recycled materials, and concrete as the building blocks to frame objects and images, and to direct or reflect light. I contrast weathered and polished, dark and light, mass and space. I often work in four dimensions, allowing time to show the kinetic aspects of a piece. Coming from a filmmaker background, I feel that motion is critical, whether it is the intrinsic movement within the work, or the movement the observer brings to the work.
The processes of welding have allowed my dreams to soar. I enjoy the fabrication as much as the design, and usually refine the concept during construction.
Adam Walls
Laurinburg, NC
Creepy Crawly painted steel
HONORABLE MENTION
Bill Wood
Fairfax, VA
Doorways and Roadways steel, aluminum
HONORABLE MENTION
Behind some doors there is opportunity and adventure. This is one of those openings to the roads we have always thought about taking, but never did. The road to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, to the place where it is always sunny and warm.
Dylan Wood
Raleigh, NC
Helical steel
In my work, I repurpose found objects into a new sculptural aesthetic that lends itself to an elegant sublime uniformity. Often drawing from the industrial wate I find around the Asheville, NC based junk yards, I enjoy the challenge of transforming something as symbolically rigid and strong as I-beams into a sublime balance of fluidity and rigidity. In the instance of Helical, I created the I-beams out of sheet steel first, then I continued to dismantle and re-shape the beams to create torn, flowing embrace with in the piece.
Since a young age I have had a heightened interest in the discarded and neglected objects around us. I have always looked in wonder at the potential for something unique and new to be brought out of the rot and rust. Learning to weld was the catalyst in my active pursuit of sculpture making.
About the Juror:
The 2011/12 National Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition juror was, Sylvie Fortin, editor-in-chief, Art Papers. Ms. Fortin is an independent curator, art historian, critic and editor who has worked internationally since 1991. She was Curator of Contemporary Art at the Ottawa Art Gallery (1996—2001), Program Coordinator at la chambre blanche (1991-1994), and a long-term collaborator with OBORO (1994-2001). Her critical essays have been published in Canadian, American and European catalogues, and her reviews have appeared in many periodicals including Art Press, C Magazine, Espace, Fuse, NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art and Parachute. Fortin studied Art History at the University of Toronto, Université Laval, and Duke University. She has received numerous significant grants and awards as a critic and curator, as well as for her academic research. Fortin was named Lexus Leader of the Arts in December 2007.
How to Submit Your Work: .
Sculptors from across the nation are welcome to submit an application for participation in the National Outdoor Sculpture Competition & Exhibition. Up to 15 sculptures are juried into the exhibit and compete for cash prizes totaling up to $14,750. Applications for the 2012/13 Exhibition are now available for download here. We are pleased to announce the Juror for 2012/13 is Steven Matijcio, curator of Contemporary Art, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA).
Call the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department at 843-740-5854 for more information, or to be added to the application mailing list.