Under the Surface Art Under the Surface Gail Simpson

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Pitiful Yeti

"Sad Yeti", installed in Law Park, Madison WI for "Winter is Live 2021"

The Abominable Snowman occupies a place in the public imagination somewhere between folklore and science fiction. Sightings of the Yeti or its footprints have appeared in snowy locations around the world. We chose to portray him every bit a sad muppet-like effigy, searching far off course for the virtually wintry areas of the globe as they become smaller and harder to find.

Synthesis

Actual Size Artworks with Dean Proctor, 2020 completion

Text from "Call back" by Joy Harjo

Night Photos past Hawk Urban center Productions

This artwork arises from the idea of nature as a source of healing and inspiration. Across time and place, homo beings have sought relief and respite in the natural environment and its flora. This "pathway to discovery" through mural and a vessel encourages us to contemplate the transformation of plants into medicine. The College of Pharmacy, with its emphasis on creating and disseminating noesis through education and enquiry, encourages a deep consideration of our human condition, with the goal of improving health and well-being. The coming together of plants and science provided our point of departure for this project.

Turning

"Turning", Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center. This sculpture has two inspirations: Frank Lloyd Wright'south circular design for one of Madison's most dear public spaces, and Tatlin's "Monument to the Third International", a favorite of ours (along with many other artists). This Russian Constructivist work was a proposal for a transparent edifice that would house public functions, conferences, and information centers, and although it was never built it remains an idealistic, forrard-looking visual statement nigh public space and urban life. Information technology resonates fifty-fifty more right at present.

Glimpse

"Glimpse", Capitol Due east Parking Garage, Madison WI

Aluminum and lighting

This sculpture turns the confront of a parking garage into a fluttering curtain.

Magical Thinking

This sculpture is based on an upturned  magician'south chapeau, with the top of a rabbit'due south head just visible in the opening. It has a humorous appearance except for the angry expression on the rabbit'southward face. The magician'southward trick of pulling a rabbit out of a hat requires  distracting the audience in order to produce a surprise. This kind of sleight-of-hand is a good metaphor for the current political dynamic in this state – a suspension of atheism in which  we seem only too willing to appoint.

 Sculpture Milwaukee 2019 in the Pfister Hotel Plaza, Milwaukee WI

Cedar, steel, foam, paint. 12' 10 eight' ten eight'

Out of the Park

This sculpture is based on the phrase used in baseball and in everyday linguistic communication to describe a powerful accomplishment: in this sculpture the ball has been hit so hard that information technology joins the solar system.

Wade Stadium, Duluth, Minnesota

Stainless steel, statuary. Two sections 5'h ten xv'w ten v'd

Surrounds

These sculptures feature colorful examples of urban wild animals perched on forms resembling tree branches or utility poles, to mark v locations on this urban trail.

Jordan Creek Trail, 5 sites, W Des Moines, Iowa

Stainless steel, polychromed cast aluminum. fourteen – 17'h

Brilliant

These clusters of winged forms assemble around the lite fixtures as a metaphor for the role of the library in the community.

Skyline Hills Branch Public Library, San Diego, California

Aluminum, two outdoor and five indoor sculptures. 7' 10 six'

Actual Size with Arnold Martin. Photos past John Durant

Longing

The sculpture is visible from the shorelines of the Tenney Park lagoon only not close plenty to access, suggesting a fashion to cross to the other side that is desired just never attained; nosotros all seem stranded on our own shores.

Tenney Park, Makeshift Festival, Madison, Wisconsin

Salvaged lumber. five' ten three' ten 16"

To the Stars

This sculpture is based on the old shop-class project known as "Stairway to the Stars". The small constructions accept a silhouette of a crescent moon with stairs along the inner surface.

Appleton, Wisconsin

Stainless steel. three' x 5' x 10'

Transporters

The sculptures in this group refer to the history and future of Kansas City as a transportation hub, consisting of various forms of transportation blended into ane object.

Union Station Streetcar Shelter, Kansas City, Missouri

Bandage aluminum and bronze. approx. 48" x 40" x 8"

Actual Size with Arnold Martin

Sown

This sculpture for the campus quadrangle is based on images of the prairie and the forest, with oversize cast rock forms ready into a circular surface area lit past waving clusters of acorn lights.

Minnesota State University, Moorhead, Minnesota

Steel, cast stone, lighting, landscaping. 48' diameter

Actual Size Artworks with Dean Proctor AIA

Corridor

This sculpture, based on a pedestrian footbridge, appears to exist suspended in the canopy of a grouping of hackberry trees. We had this idea after reading "The Hidden Life of Trees", past Peter Wohlleben, about the beautiful and invisible systems past which copse communicate with each other.

Minnesota Mural Arboretum, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Salvaged lumber. six' x 14' 10 3'

Host

A schematic diagram of an acorn creates a serial of compartments filled with plant material.

Sharon Lynn Wilson Center for the Arts, Brookfield, Wisconsin

Salvaged lumber and copper, plant fabric. 6'h x 4'd

Conundrum

Bridges have many associations in the commonage imagination – ideas most motion, progress, connection, and the human marking upon the landscape are often attached to bridges. This sculpture is part of the Chicago Tree Projection.

Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois

Salvaged lumber. 3' x v' x 16'

Under the Surface

Lake Mendota is central to the history and campus life of University of Wisconsin - Madison. This sculpture is based on an 1897 hydrographic map of Lake Mendota produced by the University civil engineering students. LEDs shining into the acrylic from behind cause the sculpture to glow, and information technology is recessed into the wall .

Dejope Residence Hall, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Acrylic and lighting. 12' 10 12' x 18'

Place to Place

This sculpture is in the course of 2 intertwined, tapering spiral staircases. A winding, indirect path is meant to be a metaphor for the experience of being a pupil, and the resulting cocoon-shape refers to the supportive environment at this university.

Warch Pupil Centre, Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin

Fabricated aluminum. 30' long

Today Only

This sculpture acts equally a backdrop for Chicago'south historic open-air market. In dissimilar languages drawn from the varied indigenous groups who have been office of Chicago'due south "melting pot" tradition, the panels refer to the kind of merchant signs that are feature of the market.

Maxwell Street Market, Chicago, Illinois

Made aluminum and sign materials. 70' long

Beacon

An ascending ladder class greets visitors to the burn station and expresses the role of fire and emergency workers in the community. A light in the bell housing illuminates the sidewalk at dark.

Fire Station #v, Lawrence, Kansas

Stainless steel, concrete, bronze bong, light. 17' ten 10' ten 10'

Exchange

Forepart porches are largely gone from contemporary homes; they correspond an era of existent-earth physical communities, before ac, Idiot box and computers led people to relax indoors. This porch is split into two dissimilar halves that don't completely align, considering although we may not run into centre to heart with everyone we meet, it's still possible to take civil chat and learn most unlike points of view.

New Albany, Indiana. "Today and Tomorrow" series

Salvaged lumber. 12'h x 16'due west ten eight'd

Trickledown

A contemporary update on a pastoral image, the giant wooden bucket in this sculpture is spilling out a flood of rooftops. Based on the imagery of the childrens' story "Jack and Jill", it is a response to the current economic crisis.

Evanston Art Center, Evanston, Illinois

Cedar, steel, mixed media

Volumes

Volumes is a serial of sculptural elements placed in a landscaped berm formed by a rock wall. Wrapping around the rear parking surface area of the library, the berm is at its highest point at the corner, and tapers at each end. Three and four pes high CorTen steel books are clustered within granite boulders, plants, shrubs and groundcovers. The books carry in relief the titles of popular children's books, equally called by the children who use the Hedberg Library.

Hedberg Public Library, Janesville, Wisconsin

CorTen books, rock wall, landscape materials. eighty ' x 40' x 20'

Crossing Paths

These four panels, mounted side by side to the entrance of a new constabulary station, are based on maps of the neighborhood, with panels of photographic cut-out images from police archives.

Milwaukee 3rd District Police force Station, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Stainless Steel. Iv panels nine' ten 10'

Thought Patterns

We replaced glass panes in the elevator shaft with printed glass based on images of pupil and faculty inquiry in the sciences; an aluminum sculpture based on a matrix hangs in the atrium in a higher place.

Upham Hall, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater

Four story atrium-aluminum and art drinking glass

Gift

This project is a reference to the preservation of open space equally a souvenir to the community. The ruddy pines were harvested by the Arboretum for the wellness of other trees.

Morton Arboretum

Red Pino, copper. 8' ten ten' 10 8'

Plenty

This sculpture is based on the idea of harvest, local food production, and the idea that the real bounty is the community.

Wormfarm Institute'due south "Art D Tour", Reedsburg, Wisconsin

Salvaged barn boards, steel, solar lighting, seed bag cushions. 16'x8'

Beneath the Pare

This project is a multi-site sculpture that is inspired partially by the blazon of work done in the Laboratory Sciences Building, and by its specific spatial quality. The sculpture is based on (just does not stand for) several natural forms, originating both within the human body and in the outdoor environment.

Laboratory Science Building, Academy of Wisconsin – Green Bay, Wisconsin

Steel and glass

Treehouse

This sculpture is based on an upside-downwards tree. Located in the children's reading area, the "foliage" provides benches and shelves, and pocket-size birds and animals are placed under the foliage and in the roots above.

Dwight Foster Public Library, Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin

Painted steel, wood, rubber. 18'h x 12'd

Residue and Motion

The sculpture is a diagonal stepped grade resembling a tapered staircase with a blueprint cut into the fabric that casts a changing shadow silhouette on the front of the edifice. It is meant to enliven the apartment planes and geometry of the building, and to suggest an active movement – like running up and down stairs. The cerise spheres are meant to resemble the sequence of a bouncing ball, a symbol of play and adept spirits.

Northwest Medical Eye, Charlotte, Due north Carolina

Made aluminum. 22'l x 4'w

Storybook

This project is for the children's' wing of a public library; a giant aluminum book flies open up overhead and the pages palpitate out, folding to become origami figures that refer to the story of the community, starting out argent and becoming brightly colored as they unfold.

Deer Park Library, Deer Park, Washington

Fabricated aluminum. 30' 10 6' 10 8'

Compass

This sculpture takes the form of a destination pole with a spiraling cluster of signs related to this Due east Side neighborhood'due south history and personality. The signs were inspired by the visual texture of the older streetscape that is still visible amidst the new, including older signs from businesses and merchants that are still present as the neighborhoods accept made transitions. These signs are frequently unusually shaped and colored, and are evidence of the individuals and places that give a neighborhood its own flavor. The typefaces and shapes represent different time periods and styles. The pole is a recycled lite post from the highway removal projection.

N Avenue at Cambridge, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

22'h

Urban Reflection

This sculpture consists of a "fatigued" metal cityscape based on the skyline and neighborhoods of Milwaukee, that wraps the edifice at ii elevations. With this project we intended to add a more lively facade to the entrance of the building, a sculptural grade that will welcome visitors and tell them something about the nature of the building. The images are based on two patterns. The upper level is fatigued from the actual downtown skyline of Milwaukee with its distinctive role towers, residential buildings, and factories. Both modern and historic buildings are represented here, with the silhouettes rendered in a simplified linear manner. The basis level structures are drawn from housing styles of residential neighborhoods, in detail the bungalows for which Milwaukee is famous.

Milwaukee County City Campus Middle, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Aluminum. Upper department xc', with 2 lower sections 30' and 60'

Fluid Motion

This projection was meant to provide a backrail for the high elevations of a skatepark, and to visually unify the various able-bodied activities that take place in this expanse.

Lynndale Park Expansion, Lynnwood, Washington

Wild Silence

The antlers on the deer take been transformed into electrical and cell phone manual towers.

"44/46" exhibit, Chicago, Illinois

Madison Museum of Contemporary Fine art, Madison, Wisconsin

Backyard ornament, aluminum. 16'h

Trojan Piggy Banking company

The pleasures of consumer culture are accompanied past less-desirable social consequences. When nosotros impose i way of life onto another, the bad goes along with the good. The playful piggybank has a subconscious agenda.

Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois

DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts

Woods, steel. 11' x viii' x 12'

Undercurrent

This sculpture makes reference to water flowing over stones for this library near a river. It also provides seating.

Dwight Foster Public Library, Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin

Stainless steel, granite 2 clusters. 12' x iv' ten 24"

Mirage

Mirage is based on a classic Midwestern rural icon, the barn. The sides are existence cut abroad by a cityscape, outlined in blood-red and glowing from within. The piece refers to the nostalgia people have for the supposedly-simpler "state life", which is being overtaken by encroaching urbanization.

Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin

Pierwalk 03, Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois

Sheet metallic, woods, steel, light. 12' x 10 ' x viii'

Broken Hardscape

The original, partially collapsed road bed is exposed in the grassy area of this park on a hill in downtown Pittsburgh. Layers of erstwhile pavers and concrete beetle from the ground with voids and cracks throughout; this project suggests the original level surface with a pattern of hollow logs planted with native flowering plants. As the logs decompose they will form a mulch bed for a sprawling ribbon of plants in the shape of the route.

Frank Curto Park, Persephone Project, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Hollow logs, native constitute material. 125' long

Organized past Stephanie Flom

Fragment

This sculpture is an architectural fragment made past salvaging a 100-yr quondam barn, in combination with a pier running through the eye, and a sod roof. Information technology is a response to the disappearing iconic Midwestern cherry-red barn, and an effort to have old building materials and re-directly them out of the waste material stream.

Recycled barn material, earthen roof. 16' 10 17' x 24'

Let Down Your Hair

This project was inspired past the Rapunzel fairy tale past the Blood brother Grimm, and its themes of beauty, vision and longing.

Installed in a 16th c. castle, "Stadt Paradies" exhibit in Darmstadt, Frg

Braided hay. 90'l x xxx"d

Curated by Ute Ritschel

You

Defended to the windy climate of Chicago, both literally and politically, this piece consists of eight finger- pointing windsocks that rotate with the air current.

Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois

Nylon windsocks. eight, 10, and 12' long

Pursuit of Happiness

The images stand for a working homo and woman, alternately running toward and confronting a wheel of symbols of the American Dream - car, firm, boat, baby, briefcase.

Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois

Aluminum, steel cable

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