Commissioned by the Art in State Buildings fund for Roy J. Carver Co-Laboratory. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
U2003.62ab
Glean III, 2005
Tom Stancliffe
Stainless steel and granite
Art in State Buildings Project for Roy J. Carver Co-Laboratory. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
U2005.303
Carver Co-Lab opened in 2003 as a space for research in plant genomics, at the time a newly formed method of working with plant breeding. Stancliffe references this blend of traditional agricultural practices and the molecular innovations occurring in the labs in the concept statement for the installation outside the entrances of the building.
“The design of the sculptures are intended to suggest germinating plant seeds that wind their way upwards along the face of the building. At the west entrance there are polished spheres that are linked like molecular models and emerge fruit-like from the twisting stems. At the north entrance, rectangles of heat colored stainless steel overlay the stems as a suggestion of DNA and also recall that pattern as integrated within the architecture…
As a whole, the design is intended to recall the Art Nouveau sensibility of the late 19th to early 20th century. At that time, Art Nouveau design returned our gaze to nature in the face of rapid technological change and mass production.”
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