Toward a Fuller Cultural
Profile?
By Tom Wachunas
First, a little
background. The following two paragraphs are from the ArtsInStark web site, www.artsinstark.com .
“Artist Gail Folwell, nationally recognized
and awarded for her sculptures of athletes in action, has been awarded the
second commission in The ELEVEN, a $2.2 million public art project of
ArtsinStark and the Pro Football Hall of Fame celebrating the greatest moments
in professional football history. Her
work, depicting The NFL Draft, 1936, will reside in Canton, Ohio, the
birthplace of the National Football League (September 17, 1920), and the home
of the eventual 11 public art pieces to be completed in 2020 for the 100th anniversary
of the NFL…”
“…I was drawn to The NFL Draft, 1936
(moment) because it demonstrated the collaboration between the business and the
art of football.” said Folwell. “For
this reason, I was compelled to conceptually portray the team owner in a suit
as the center on the team, building the roster of players around him…”
Additionally, here’s a link to the video of
the artwork being delivered to Canton’s Cultural Center for the Arts :
Gail Folwell’s sculpture
will be officially unveiled in Canton’s downtown Arts District on August 7, at
the corner of 4th Street and Cleveland Avenue. The photographs above
are (in order from the top down) of Folwell in her Colorado studio, the
five-figure array of the sculpture-in- progress (both photos from ArtsInStark
web site), a close-up I took of an unwrapped portion temporarily parked in the
Cultural Center’s Great Court, and the newly-built concrete platform awaiting
final installation.
Beyond its
programmatic relevance to the whole idea behind The Eleven project, the
sculpture is a remarkable work of art in its own right. Folwell has invested
her figures with both a sense of impending explosive motion and a visceral,
expressive physicality. Though cast in bronze, they seem to have been carved
out of solid rock. This in itself evokes football’s apparently permanent place
in the landscape of America’s (not to mention Canton’s) “popular” culture.
Folwell’s chosen medium of bronze casting is one steeped in a classical
tradition that we rightly associate with elevating or monumentalizing human
achievements. For a time-honored precedent, consider the ancient Greeks and
their veneration of athletic pursuits expressed in exquisite bronze and marble
statuary.
Currently, the
collection of Arts District public sculptures is primarily a mobile menagerie
of funky fauna. While some might argue that this pastiche of mostly recycled
industrial metal parts is an “entertaining” expression of artful whimsicality,
it nonetheless collectively pales in comparison to the compelling elegance of a
work such as Gail Folwell’s. Hers, I think, sets a very high bar for
ArtsInStark’s future installations of public artworks, football-oriented and beyond.
And why should it
be otherwise? If the intent is to invest in impressive public art to enhance
Canton’s Arts District and its downtown surrounds as a “tourist destination,”
why can’t that art declare not just Canton’s famous connection to the NFL, but
also the full legacy of Canton
culture? I’m taking a cue from Folwell’s own words about her piece as
demonstrating “…the collaboration between the business and the art of
football,” and imagining a series of representational public artworks that
speak to a collaboration between the business and the art of…art. All the arts, actually.
Think of it – a
series of public works to complement and balance The ELEVEN with celebrations
of the Muses whose promptings have been active in Canton since long before the
establishment of the NFL. Fantasy or feasibility? Do we have at least the will
to realize specific, permanent public monuments to Canton’s remarkable (and too
often neglected?) legacy of music, singing, theatre, ballet, and the visual
arts?
The ball,
ArtsInStark, is in your hands.
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