Published: July 06, 2009 11:51 pm         

Sculpture installed outside of ISU’s new rec center

TERRE HAUTE — With outstretched arms and legs posed mid-stride, “Runner” is a 23-foot-tall stainless steel outdoor sculpture that may soon symbolize Indiana State University’s new Student Recreation Center.

Installation of the sculpture began Monday. As workers used burlap sacks to protect its skin, Boston artist Douglas Kornfeld eyed an alignment as workers secured the sculpture. An arm was soon welded onto the sculpture onsite, as it would have been too wide to transport without special hauling permits.

The artwork uses simple lines for the runner’s body and a circle for the head.

“This is the 21st century and I have nothing against figurative work, but for my work I want to use the most modern means, the most modern materials, the most modern look,” Kornfeld said as he pointed to the new Student Recreation Center.

“Look at this building, it is as high tech as we can build and I think our art should reflect who we are today, not who we were in the past. I wanted it to look industrial. You can see the welds,” Kornfeld said. “I don’t want it to look highly refined. I want it to look industrial. I want it to look modern materials, modern means. That’s the look,” Kornfeld said.

The sculpture was commissioned for $65,000 in a collaborative effort among Art Spaces Inc., ISU’s Permanent Art Collection and the university’s Office of Facilities Management.

The sculpture appears to jog in front of the new $21.7 million recreation center that will be dedicated Friday and officially open to students on July 13.

Kornfeld, 54, teaches art at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education in Cambridge, Mass. His design was selected from among 72 artists from 22 states.

“We gave the artists no direction,” said John Lustig, curator of ISU Permanent Art Collection. “We invited them down in the middle of the winter and spent time with each artist. Doug really embraced it and got the vibe of what was going on” for the site-specific project.

“I think that this sculpture is truly a great partnership … between the content of the artwork and the content of the space,” Lustig said.

The sculpture, Lustig said, will “serve as a symbol and be a photo opportunity for many. It will certainly identify the building and serve as a meeting place, to meet ‘down by the runner’ for many on campus.”

It is Kornfeld’s first public artwork in the Midwest. He also has public artwork in Denver; Lincoln, Mass.; St. Petersburg, Fla.; New Haven, Conn.; and Golden, Colo.

The stainless steel framework of the sculpture weighs about 2,300 pounds, said Betsy Wilkinson, a Terre Haute structural engineer who ensured Kornfeld’s design would function as a freestanding sculpture. Northern Manufacturing Inc., an Oak Harbor, Ohio, firm, did the precision fabrication of the stainless steel, formed into four-sided sections about 1/8 inch thick at the top, widening to about 3/8 inch thick at the bottom. The sections form the body, arms and legs of the runner.

Glass beads were used to blast a matte finish onto the steel. The concrete base for the sculpture is 7 feet long, 3 feet wide and 4 feet deep, with steel reinforcement bars and 12 stainless steel anchor bolts.

The idea for a runner came from inside the new student recreation center, the artist said.

“I wanted it to look good inside as well as outside. I knew it had to be something athletic, it had to be something dynamic and had to be something that everybody could relate to,” Kornfeld said. “Even if you are not a super athlete, everybody runs, if nothing else, when you are late for class. …

“When you see its final position, it’s not centered in the windows,” Kornfeld said before the sculpture was erected. “It’s off-center. So from the inside, you will look up when you are in the swimming pool and it will look like something that is rushing by, especially when you catch it in the corner of your eye. You will do a double take, ’oh, did it move?’”

One important aspect of the design is a ground-level light fixture. As a person walks in front of the sculpture during the evening, the light will project that person’s outline on the side of the wall of the building. “You will see this generic symbol, this icon, then have the individual students, faculty and visitors who are unique, so you will have the symbol versus the uniqueness of the individual,” Kornfeld said.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com