Public Art Winner Announced
A red, 15-foot-tall metal sculpture that appears to defy gravity will soon be greeting passers by at Sherman Plaza, thanks to the culmination of a public art contest conducted last year. Chosen from five finalists, Takashi Soga’s “The Sea of the Ear-Ring '07 ” depicts a stainless steel and lead sculpture with a large ring protruding from the top that is designed to move quietly with the wind.
Inspired by how shapes interact with space and gravity – and how people experience these shapes – Soga wrote in his proposal, “I know it is impossible to control the gravity, but I can show another face of gravity.”
The decision followed an intensive process by a Public Art review panel, which included representatives from the Public Art Committee, local artists, architects, business owners, and government officials. The finalists were chosen from a group of 155 submissions representing 33 states and 10 different countries, as well as Puerto Rico. The other finalists were David Black of Ohio; Evanstonian Indira Freitas Johnson, an Indian-born immigrant; Robert McColgan of Ireland; and G. Byron Peck of Washington, D.C.
In Soga’s design, the ring itself juts out of a large, rectangular base and spans 13 feet across. It will give the illusion of floating independently but is actually attached to a joint that is supported in the body of the structure. The purpose is to lend the plaza space at the northwest corner of Sherman Avenue and Davis Street a sense of calmness and satori, or Zen enlightenment. Chosen based on both the intriguing concept and the artist’s track record, Soga’s “Ear-Ring” series started with a similar installment in Japan. Much of his previous work, whether realized in steel, stone, bronze, lead or tin, deals with related themes.
Many of his outdoor works in Japan also depict simple, massive red or black shapes balancing precariously on one another. One sculpture that appeared in an exhibition in New York is a ten-foot-high column that moves despite a large boulder sitting on top. This is the first time a major work by Soga will be permanently installed outdoors in the U.S.
Soga was born in Osaka, Japan, and graduated from Osaka University of Art. He immigrated to the United States in 1999 and currently lives in Utica, New York, where he has worked as the Studio Manager of Sculpture Space, an incubator for new work.
He has created several pieces for public spaces both in the U.S. and abroad. His work has won him many accolades over the years, including the 2005 Pollock-Krasner Grant and the Ube Outdoor Museum Prize in his native Japan in 2003. That same year he was awarded a Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts grant to help finance a project at the Pratt Institute.