Walking to class, I enter Faner Hall every M/W/F morning, and go past it in the afternoon. It is huge, only 3 stories high but 6 wings long. It has holes in it so students can go under it, not around. The outside is gray, pitted concrete that has never known a layer of paint, and some windows that look like marbleized iridescence. Water stains show from decades of rain, and I suppose from condensation on the parts under the bridge. Apart from the materials, it all looks very stilted and unnatural, with 'shelves' pointing out under every floor, and sharp edges at regular intervals, and odd angles, and a concrete ceiling when I'm outside.
It's no wonder some professors find it fugly. I try to find novelty everywhere, the most I can do for that eyesore is it's like a set for a post-apocalyptic movie. Michael Whelan's done some paintings with ugly, pitted concrete that have a beauty of their own: the shape, the lines, the skill such that you think you're looking at concrete, not canvas. Seriously, look up his painting 'Climber.' The building doesn't have nice lines or shapes at all, but it's nice to know where Whelan comes from when painting it.
When walking back from class today, as I headed towards the huge building, I thought mostly how alien it was next to the trees and grass and paths. I noticed some blocky sculpture off the path. They were just as much eyesore as most campus architecture. It was a set of pillars in strange angled shapes, with lines of rust and plenty of erosion. When I got close enough to read the plaque of the so called art, I brightened.
It read: "Here"
I get you old sculptor person. I get what you did. That's very neat.
 Spriteless Girl · Mon Jan 28, 2008 @ 11:01pm · 0 Comments |
