{"id":25464,"date":"2010-12-02T08:16:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-02T13:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=25464"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:36:01","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:36:01","slug":"uconn-artist-turns-new-england-icon-into-work-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/12\/uconn-artist-turns-new-england-icon-into-work-of-art\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Artist Turns New England Icon into Work of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Professor<\/a>
Professor Olu Oguibe's 40-foot stone wall highlights the craftsmanship and social\/cultural relevance of the stone wall to New England. Photo courtesy of Real Art Ways<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Conceptual artist Olu Oguibe<\/a>, a professor of art and art history at UConn, has translated both the metaphorical and literal properties of the iconic New England stone wall into a contemporary art form. Oguibe\u2019s 40-foot-long stone wall installation, is the centerpiece of a solo exhibition, Wall,<\/em><\/a> at Real Art Ways<\/a> in Hartford that runs through March 20, 2011.<\/p>\n

The stone wall has long been a part of the New England countryside. Whether stone walls are appreciated as staples of landscape design or artifacts left behind by the laborers that stacked them, they are infused into New England culture. In a new art exhibition, this historical marker is taking the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the stone wall in the gallery space is first and foremost a formal statement,\u201d says Oguibe, who is also an award-winning poet. \u201cIt is a simple, three-dimensional line in space, a mark, if you will. It is also the ultimate minimalist gesture in the sense that the medium is not the stone but the wall itself, and my approach is to present the stone wall in its barest elemental essence, as a complete gesture, almost like a found object, without artifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oguibe may be the first artist to move the ubiquitous stone wall into a gallery space. He worked with local masons and New England field stones to create a space where history and the natural elements of the land become art.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy moving the New England stone wall into the gallery or museum space, and making the stone wall part of the vocabulary of conceptual art, I hope to generate a new, inclusive discourse that draws no line between aesthetic or formal concerns, and environmental, cultural, and social discourses,\u201d Oguibe says in his artist\u2019s statement accompanying the piece. \u201cIn my stone walls, minimalism, conceptualism, and environmental art all find their common ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an international artist whose work often deals with place, Oguibe believes it\u2019s time that New England artists rebuild the bridge between art and the museum public. Thus, he returned to the peculiar natural elements and forms that define the region and its environment. In doing so, he hopes to renew the public’s interest in the beauty and unique qualities of the region.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Professor<\/a>
Oguibe has translated both the metaphorical and literal properties of the iconic New England stone wall into a contemporary art form. Photo courtesy of Real Art Ways<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The artist describes his vision this way: \u201cI am interested in the New England stone wall as a conceptual marker, as metaphor; a metaphor for the conquest of the wild and the triumph of sedentary civilization; a metaphor for our democracy, which was founded on labor, migration, individual determination, and communal vision; a metaphor for in-between spaces; a metaphor for a sense of place; a metaphor for New England itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Robert Thorson<\/a>, a UConn geologist, geophysicist, and prominent stone wall expert, thinks Oguibe\u2019s installation is a \u201cwonderful idea, especially with respect to his argument about simplicity and elemental form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thorson is coordinator of the Stone Wall Initiative<\/a>, which promotes appreciation and education regarding New England stone walls. The initiative is based at UConn in the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History<\/a> in Storrs, which is part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Thorson has written four books, three of them about stone walls, and is dedicated to promoting their conservation. He recently spoke at Real Art Ways about the significance and beauty of stone walls, in recognition of Oguibe\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

In his book, Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History in New England\u2019s Stone Walls<\/a><\/em>, Thorson describes the walls as \u201cthe signatures of rural New England.\u201d He says \u201cto know New England well, one must know its stone walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stone wall is the link between nature and human nature in the woods of New England,\u201d he says. \u201cIt’s also the signature landform of the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

A stone wall is, in many ways, like a piece of folk art, Thorson adds. \u201cMaking a stone wall is much like playing chess, but with muscle added to mind. For a certain space in the wall, and from a population of stones, one must select a type of stone and make a move. This will influence the next decision of which type of stone and where it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oguibe\u2019s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions around the world, including Venice, Italy; Havana, Cuba; Busan, Korea; and Johannesburg, South Africa. His art also has been showcased at the Whitney Museum, MoMa PS1, the Smithsonian, the United Nations Headquarters, and many other locations. He has also served as curator or co-curator for many international exhibitions, including shows at the Tate Modern in London and the Venice Biennial.<\/p>\n

An \u201cartist talk\u201d featuring Oguibe will take place on Feb. 10 at 5 p.m. at Real Art Ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using field stones and working with local masons, Olu Oguibe created a stone wall in gallery space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-25464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 04:36:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25464"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36323,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25464\/revisions\/36323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25464"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=25464"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=25464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}