Glean III by Tom Stancliffe

                         

For the last two years, I have commuted from parking lot #29 to the building of College of Design almost every day. When I am passing by the Roy J Carver Co- Laboratory building, I can see a sculpture that looks like a space shuttle in emergency that, I guess, landed on the earth. The space shuttle is displayed in a small square surrounded by the walls and sky. The space shuttle is catching my eyes every time, because it strikes my imagination. One day, the space shuttle may take off and disappear into the sky, leaving nothing in the square: instead emptiness fills in. I think that it is a forgotten fortune: we can see the space shuttle every morning as it is. What a relief!

In addition, this sculpture reminds me of one of the funny Korean folktales that I heard in my childhood.

 Once upon a time there were two brothers in a small village, Nolboo and Heungboo. While HeungBoo was nice and humble, but his older brother Nolboo was mean and greedy. Nolboo was a notorious boy annoying people and animals in the villages. After their parents died, the older brother NolBoo kicked out his younger brother HeungBoo from the parents’ house, taking all the inheritance.  

HeungBoo became poor and lived miserably with his wife and nine children. One day, HeungBoo and his family were so hungry that he went to his brother's house and asked for some food. But his sister-in-law smashed him on his face with a big scoop and forced him out of the house. While greatly disappointed on the way home, HeungBoo found a little swallow with its one leg broken on the ground. He brought it home and took good care of it. Several days later, he released the bird in the air.

                  

Next year, that swallow came back to HeungBoo’s house and dropped one pumpkin seed to the hands of HeungBoo. He buried it in the garden, hoping that he could harvest some pumpkins for his family.  The fall came.  He picked up one of pumpkins and cut it in half. Surprisingly, there burst out all kinds of treasures such as gold and silver from the pumpkin. Overnight, HeungBoo became super-super rich.                                                                     

 NolBoo heard how HeungBoo became rich. He wanted to be as rich as his brother. So he captured a swallow and broke and then treated its legs. He also released it several days later.

Next year, NolBoo received the same pumpkin seed from the swallow. He planted the seed in his garden too. When the fall came, NolBoo cut one pumpkin. The moment the pumpkin opened widely, a group of scary monsters came out and started to punished NolBoo and his wife. The monsters took away all the money and treasures from his house.  However, HeungBoo had pity on his brother. He invited his brother and family to his house and lived together happily ever after.

The sculpture, Glean 3, reminds me of the swallow whose legs HeungBoo took care of.  The space shuttle is a swallow lying on the ground, waiting for somebody’s help. Just as HeungBoo fixed the legs of the swallow, one day someone may appear to fix the wings of the space shuttle and help it fly into the sky.

Meanwhile, the space shuttle is just shining to catch our attention: the combination of shiny metal and green grass create some sort of mysterious fairy tale story like the swallow or space shuttle I have in my imagination. It could be another creature from fairly tale story books.

 I love the beauty of the lines. The lines have different shapes and thickness. The S-shape of the lines enhances the softness of the sculpture. The round bottom holds the lines stably and reduces the sharpness that otherwise straight lines may render. And the little square where the sculpture displays helps the audience to fully appreciate the beauty of round curves of the sculpture which is surrounded in straight lines of square walls and sky.

If you run into my space shuttle, think about your fairy tale story just as I did. 

- Sodam Lee