artist profiles

In 1992, for the Stuart Collection, Jenny Holzer created "Green Table," a large granite picnic or refectory table and benches inscribed with texts. Holzer's table and benches monumentalize an ordinary and functional set of objects. Like all tables, Holzer's work serves as an informal gathering place for students and faculty to eat, study, or play. But the various attitudes Holzer adopts in her writings – from humorous commentary to politically charged criticism – also create a site for questioning and debate. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37816]

In 1992, for the Stuart Collection, Jenny Holzer created "Green Table," a large granite picnic or refectory table and benches inscribed with texts. Holzer's table and benches monumentalize an ordinary and functional set of objects. Like all tables, Holzer's work serves as an informal gathering place for students and faculty to eat, study, or play. But the various attitudes Holzer adopts in her writings – from humorous commentary to politically charged criticism – also create a site for questioning and debate. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37816]

"Red Shoe" has brought to life a formerly forgotten corner of campus. It is an alluring place for children to climb, its smooth exterior giving way to a roughly hull-like interior, hinting at the enclosure of a nest or fort. Narratives come to mind as fantasy evokes the resonance of childhood rhymes and tales. In the words of Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale University School of Art, "Reason presides over universities; it remains for artists to give substance to those areas of consciousness that reason has not and perhaps cannot articulate." Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37818]

The female figure atop "Standing" calls forth thoughts of human strength and frailty, and both the power and the limits of medicine. Serene and ageless, she stands in a Madonna-like pose that is both vulnerable and generous. Ribbons of water - the source of life - flow from her hands into the rock-lined pond below, with a soothing sound. The skin surface of the body itself is violated to reveal the musculature and tendons of arms and calves, reflecting Kiki Smith's interest in such anatomical illustrations and models. A "necklace" of starfish-headed pins, placed in the shape of the constellation Virgo, pierces the flesh, calling up a profusion of associations, from acupuncture to dissection to martyrdom. With these tiny starfish like a veil of Virgo gems, the delicate pins call up at once the oceanic and the celestial, in an image that speaks of mind and body, of flesh and healing. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37819]

The female figure atop "Standing" calls forth thoughts of human strength and frailty, and both the power and the limits of medicine. Serene and ageless, she stands in a Madonna-like pose that is both vulnerable and generous. Ribbons of water - the source of life - flow from her hands into the rock-lined pond below, with a soothing sound. The skin surface of the body itself is violated to reveal the musculature and tendons of arms and calves, reflecting Kiki Smith's interest in such anatomical illustrations and models. A "necklace" of starfish-headed pins, placed in the shape of the constellation Virgo, pierces the flesh, calling up a profusion of associations, from acupuncture to dissection to martyrdom. With these tiny starfish like a veil of Virgo gems, the delicate pins call up at once the oceanic and the celestial, in an image that speaks of mind and body, of flesh and healing. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37819]

"Red Shoe" has brought to life a formerly forgotten corner of campus. It is an alluring place for children to climb, its smooth exterior giving way to a roughly hull-like interior, hinting at the enclosure of a nest or fort. Narratives come to mind as fantasy evokes the resonance of childhood rhymes and tales. In the words of Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale University School of Art, "Reason presides over universities; it remains for artists to give substance to those areas of consciousness that reason has not and perhaps cannot articulate." Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37818]

Do Ho Suh’s work explores the notions of home, cultural displacement, one’s perception of space and how one builds a memory of it. What is home, after all? A place? An idea? A sentiment? A memory? A small cottage has been picked up, as if by some mysterious force, and “landed” atop Jacobs Hall at UC San Diego, where it sits crookedly on one corner, cantilevered out over the ground seven stories below. A lush roof garden of vines, flowers and vegetables, frequented by birds and bees, is a small gathering place with panoramic views of the campus and beyond. Upon entering the house it becomes apparent that the floor and the house itself are at different angles, causing a sense of dislocation – some would say vertigo. One must adjust both physically and mentally in order to accommodate a whole new view of the world. The surroundings are familiar but the feeling is not. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37823]

Do Ho Suh’s work explores the notions of home, cultural displacement, one’s perception of space and how one builds a memory of it. What is home, after all? A place? An idea? A sentiment? A memory? A small cottage has been picked up, as if by some mysterious force, and “landed” atop Jacobs Hall at UC San Diego, where it sits crookedly on one corner, cantilevered out over the ground seven stories below. A lush roof garden of vines, flowers and vegetables, frequented by birds and bees, is a small gathering place with panoramic views of the campus and beyond. Upon entering the house it becomes apparent that the floor and the house itself are at different angles, causing a sense of dislocation – some would say vertigo. One must adjust both physically and mentally in order to accommodate a whole new view of the world. The surroundings are familiar but the feeling is not. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37823]

Jackie Ferrara designed a series of three distinct spaces at UCSD's Cellular and Molecular Medicine Facility. Each area is paved with a similar linear pattern of green, red, and black slate and surrounded by compacted gravel. Each has a unique character, but the terraces flow into one another becoming one continuous space. She has placed Australian willows and benches in lines that echo the grid of the slate and the lines of the low walls. The cloistered intimacy of the terraces, with their suggestion of early or monumental architecture, provides a space of contemplation for the scientists who work in the center, and articulates and emphasizes the architectural motifs of the building itself. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37813]

Jackie Ferrara designed a series of three distinct spaces at UCSD's Cellular and Molecular Medicine Facility. Each area is paved with a similar linear pattern of green, red, and black slate and surrounded by compacted gravel. Each has a unique character, but the terraces flow into one another becoming one continuous space. She has placed Australian willows and benches in lines that echo the grid of the slate and the lines of the low walls. The cloistered intimacy of the terraces, with their suggestion of early or monumental architecture, provides a space of contemplation for the scientists who work in the center, and articulates and emphasizes the architectural motifs of the building itself. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37813]

A 199-foot tall metal flag-pole-like sculpture is mounted with a flashing light which playfully spells out “What Hath God Wrought” in Morse Code. The titular phrase is notably the first message Samuel Morse tested and transmitted across 41 miles in 1844. The sculpture reflects both the origins of the university as well as the origins of present-day communications: Morse Code is at the root of our contemporary era of information exchange, where communication travels instantaneously. Morse’s good-humored, secular message is interpreted thoughtfully by Mark Bradford and aligned with the artist’s expansive work depicting communities and reflecting on our shared cultural history. With this epic artwork, Bradford explores the physical means behind past and present-day communication that underlines his greater practice. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37825]

A 199-foot tall metal flag-pole-like sculpture is mounted with a flashing light which playfully spells out “What Hath God Wrought” in Morse Code. The titular phrase is notably the first message Samuel Morse tested and transmitted across 41 miles in 1844. The sculpture reflects both the origins of the university as well as the origins of present-day communications: Morse Code is at the root of our contemporary era of information exchange, where communication travels instantaneously. Morse’s good-humored, secular message is interpreted thoughtfully by Mark Bradford and aligned with the artist’s expansive work depicting communities and reflecting on our shared cultural history. With this epic artwork, Bradford explores the physical means behind past and present-day communication that underlines his greater practice. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37825]

Bruce Nauman's "Vices and Virtues" for the Stuart Collection at UC San Diego consists of seven pairs of words superimposed in blinking neon, which run like a frieze around the top of the Charles Lee Powell Structural Systems Laboratory. Seven vices alternate with seven virtues: FAITH/LUST, HOPE/ENVY, CHARITY/SLOTH, PRUDENCE/PRIDE, JUSTICE/AVARICE, TEMPERANCE/GLUTTONY, and FORTITUDE/ANGER. The virtues flash sequentially clockwise around the building at one rate; and the vices circulate counterclockwise at a slightly faster rate. At brief intervals, all seven virtues and all seven vices flash together. The progression of the two repeating cycles playing off each other allows all possible combinations of the words to be displayed. This complicated performance, generated by the mechanical sequencing of a simple moral dichotomy, dramatizes the instability of any ethical judgment. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37810]

Bruce Nauman's "Vices and Virtues" for the Stuart Collection at UC San Diego consists of seven pairs of words superimposed in blinking neon, which run like a frieze around the top of the Charles Lee Powell Structural Systems Laboratory. Seven vices alternate with seven virtues: FAITH/LUST, HOPE/ENVY, CHARITY/SLOTH, PRUDENCE/PRIDE, JUSTICE/AVARICE, TEMPERANCE/GLUTTONY, and FORTITUDE/ANGER. The virtues flash sequentially clockwise around the building at one rate; and the vices circulate counterclockwise at a slightly faster rate. At brief intervals, all seven virtues and all seven vices flash together. The progression of the two repeating cycles playing off each other allows all possible combinations of the words to be displayed. This complicated performance, generated by the mechanical sequencing of a simple moral dichotomy, dramatizes the instability of any ethical judgment. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37810]

Terry Allen's diverse talents and experiences are highlighted in his first outdoor project, "Trees," for the Stuart Collection. He remarks upon the continual loss of natural environment at UC San Diego by salvaging three eucalyptus trees from a grove razed to make way for new campus buildings. Two of these trees stand like ghosts within a eucalyptus grove between the Geisel Library and the Faculty Club. Although they ostensibly represent displacement or loss, these trees offer a kind of compensation: one emits a series of recorded songs and the other a lively sequence of poems and stories created specifically for this project. At the entrance to the Geisel library the third tree of Allen's installation remains silent - perhaps another form of the tree of knowledge, perhaps a reminder that trees must be cut down to print books, perhaps a dance form, or perhaps noting that one can acquire knowledge both through observation of nature and through research. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37807]

Terry Allen's diverse talents and experiences are highlighted in his first outdoor project, "Trees," for the Stuart Collection. He remarks upon the continual loss of natural environment at UC San Diego by salvaging three eucalyptus trees from a grove razed to make way for new campus buildings. Two of these trees stand like ghosts within a eucalyptus grove between the Geisel Library and the Faculty Club. Although they ostensibly represent displacement or loss, these trees offer a kind of compensation: one emits a series of recorded songs and the other a lively sequence of poems and stories created specifically for this project. At the entrance to the Geisel library the third tree of Allen's installation remains silent - perhaps another form of the tree of knowledge, perhaps a reminder that trees must be cut down to print books, perhaps a dance form, or perhaps noting that one can acquire knowledge both through observation of nature and through research. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37807]

Finlay created a one-word poem installed at one edge of the north playing field at UC San Diego. "UNDA" consists of five stone blocks into which are carved, in various sequences, the letters U, N, D, A, and an S-like mark which is the editor's notation for "transpose these letters." The letters on each block in the sequence carry out the transpositions indicated by this curved mark so that regardless of the order of the letters, each block ultimately spells out UNDA. In the course of the multi-part sculpture, the wave sign rolls through UNDA, the Latin word for wave, while the tops of the stones are aligned with the distant horizon of ocean. A literary cycle is identified with the cycle of the natural wave, an association that the artist relates to the velocity and flow of language. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37809]

Finlay created a one-word poem installed at one edge of the north playing field at UC San Diego. "UNDA" consists of five stone blocks into which are carved, in various sequences, the letters U, N, D, A, and an S-like mark which is the editor's notation for "transpose these letters." The letters on each block in the sequence carry out the transpositions indicated by this curved mark so that regardless of the order of the letters, each block ultimately spells out UNDA. In the course of the multi-part sculpture, the wave sign rolls through UNDA, the Latin word for wave, while the tops of the stones are aligned with the distant horizon of ocean. A literary cycle is identified with the cycle of the natural wave, an association that the artist relates to the velocity and flow of language. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37809]

"Another" is in the vast atrium of the UC San Diego Price Center East. The large interior wall bears a massive double image of clocks which is punctuated by terrazzo-like areas that contain phrases. Two LED displays show live current news, adding another level of interest, as well as meaning, and suggesting how our lives are, to some degree, culturally inflected, constructed and contained. This combination of graphic image and moving text creates a space which functions on both a pictorial and a time-based level. The visual motif of the wall is extended to the floor by the use of terrazzo rectangles placed throughout the area, containing quotes from prominent figures in both the arts and sciences. The expansiveness of the wall and floor anchor the area with powerful images and, with the texts, create a space of visual pleasure, and relevancy. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37822]

Snake Path consists of a winding 560-foot-long, 10-foot-wide footpath in the form of a serpent, whose individual scales are hexagonal pieces of colored slate, and whose head is inlaid in the approach to UC San Diego's Geisel Library. The tail wraps around an existing concrete pathway as a snake would wrap itself around a tree limb. Along the way, the serpent's slightly crowned body circles around a small "garden of Eden" with several fruit trees including an apple, a fig and a pomegranate. These pointed allusions to the biblical conflict between innocence and knowledge mark an apt symbolic path to the University's main repository of books. The concept of finding sanctuary within oneself - outside the idealistic and protected confines of the university - speaks directly to the student on the verge of entering the real world. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37815]