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Serving James Madison University Since 1922
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Vol. 88, No. 14 Thursday, October 13, 2011
SCULPTURE GARDEN
LOSES ITS HEAD
ASHLEY GRISHAM / THE BREEZE
TOP The large head in the Duke Hall Sculpture Garden, titled “Collapse” and created by Ledelle Moe in 2009, was removed Sept. 17, the end of its twoyear rotation. BOTTOM If you look closely, the untitled “beehive,” created by Steven Siegel in 2001, is made up of old Daily News-Record newspapers.
Duke Sculpture Garden removes old to make way for new, artists discuss existing pieces By MARY MARKS contributing writer
Is that a giant beehive? Where did the fallen head go? And why are there sagging silver pumpkins along the Duke Hall sidewalk? Welcome to the Duke Sculpture Garden, home to many intriguing art pieces, including the newspaper figure that students have named “beehive.” Almost years after the untitled “beehive” was built, the exposed folds of newspaper that constitute its exterior are so worn that the wind blows tiny fragments away. Ants crawl across “Dear Abby” and crickets find a home between crossword puzzles and a “Yes, only $.!” ad. We may never know what the beehive is meant to be about. “I don’t do messages,” said Steven Siegel, creator of the piece. “I let it speak for itself. That’s your job.” Siegel, an accomplished artist based in New York, constructed this sculpture in out of Daily News-Record newspapers, wood, wire and dianthus, a green plant with pink flowers. The piece is hollow and on a frame allowing a garden to grow on the top. There are more than a dozen similar Siegel works on other campuses around the United States, as well as more than pieces around the world. He’s known for large sculptures using recyclable materials. Some sit on the ocean shores of Italy, and others are tucked into the forests of South Korea. Some weigh more than tons. The piece Siegel is working on now, titled “Biography,” is more than feet long, containing materials like bottlecaps, rubber hoses, yarn and popsicle sticks. Siegel brought in the frame for his piece and constructed the piece on site, so the sculpture was never weighed. The top of the sculpture is starting to deteriorate, exposing black plastic. “They are supposed to deteriorate over time,” Siegel said. “Some just biodegrade into the ground.” Gary Freeburg, the Sawhill Gallery director,
Ruppert, titled “Pumpkins.” These were cast from a pumpkin that weighed pounds. Ruppert made a plaster mold of the vegetable to use in his severalstep casting process. His inspiration comes from the agriculture industry’s drive to grow “super vegetables” using hybrids and the idea of preserving something so massive before it collapses. In April , Ruppert brought the aluminum pumpkins — each weighing around pounds — to campus, lowering them with his truck crane. PAUL JONES / THE BREEZE Ruppert is now working on the plaster mold he took from a pumphe saw featured on “The Today Show” that >> Duke Hall will also be receiving kin weighed , pounds. a facelift this year, page A3 While walking through the garden on the way to class, students can’t help but notice explains that the sculpture is too heavy to haul something different about this space. away intact and will have to be destroyed once But as for the garden itself, “it needs more the piece is removed from the sculpture gar- appeal,” said freshman Megan Hartsoe. den to make way for the Duke Hall renovation “There’s not that much stuff going on. I would in . put in something more colorful ... some kind The artists for the garden were chosen by of bench made out of art.” Greg Stewart, a JMU art professor formerly in Freeburg wishes it could become a more charge of the sculpture garden. Stewart would interactive spot, where paths lead students write proposals for the artists to bring their closer to the sculptures, creating a park work to campus and give them to the School atmosphere. Other students expressed similar vews. of Art, Design and Art History and the dean’s office in the College of Visual and Performing “I don’t see a problem as long as it’s left Arts. intact,” said Darryl Robinson, a junior graphic Students may also have noticed an abrupt design major. “It can go be iconic somewhere change in the garden. The fallen head, titled else.” “Collapse,” created by Ledelle Moe in , is While working on the garden in the past, no longer there. Freeburg explains the garden Stewart dealt with the financial aspect of operis “a revolving thing” in which artists’ work is ations as well. supposed to be featured for only two years. “That’s all we can afford,” Stewart said. “In On Sept. , Moe unscrewed the bolts hold- the end, there wasn’t the cooperation with the ing the approximately pieces of the concrete university to make it happen — the cooperahead together, each piece weighing from to tion we would have wanted.” pounds. As for the garden’s future, Freeburg is Moe, an art professor at Maryland Institute waiting to “see what the space will look like” College of Art who studied at Virginia Com- after the massive Duke Hall renovation, tenmonwealth University, has created more than tatively scheduled to end in spring . large-scale concrete sculptures and more than , life-size heads in the past years. CONTACT Mary Marks at In a far corner of the garden are three hol- marksme@dukes.jmu.edu. low aluminum pumpkins created by artist John
WANT TO SEE MORE ART?
Senior dies in boarding accident By AARON KOEPPER and LEVI MAY The Breeze
Kathryn Lea Mausteller, a senior kinesiology and sport and recreation management double major, died on Monday after a longboarding accident Saturday night. Mausteller, , from Williamsburg, Va., was longboarding down a hill near her apartment in Nor th when she fell off the board and hit her head, according to longtime COURTESY OF FACEBOOK friend and Liberty University Kathryn Lea freshman William Perkins. Mausteller, 22, had She wasn’t an “extreme, lively wearing a heland always positive met at the time personality,” a of the crash, friend said. according to another longtime friend, Logan Kendle, a senior integrated sciences and technology major. Neither Kendle nor Perkins were at the accident site, both are friends of the family. Kendle knew Mausteller for years. Perkins said Mausteller was visiting a friend, Robbie Magnuson, who called . Paramedics then took her to the neurological intensive care unit at University of Virginia Medical Center, where she remained in critical condition until Monday afternoon. Surgeons couldn’t stop the bleeding, according to Perkins, and by Monday, Mausteller wasn’t showing any brain activity and her life support was cut off. Mausteller graduated from Williamsburg Christian Academy in , where she played basketball and soccer, according to her obituary on the Williamsburg Christian Academy’s website. In , she scored points in a basketball season and , total while on the team. She was also named girls’ basketball team captain and made the All-Conference Team for the Metro Athletic Conference in high school. In soccer, Mausteller was named the tournament MVP and made the All-Conference team. “Katie’s extreme, lively and always positive personality that could literally make a room laugh upon her entrance or erupt in cheers, will be severely missed by all those that knew her,” Kendle said in an email. Moss Levenson, a sophomore accounting major who regularly longboards, he didn’t know Mausteller but said it’s easy to become overconfident riding. “You don’t need [a helmet] as much at first because you’re not going that fast,” Levenson said. “The better you get, the more dangerous it can be. That’s when you need a helmet.” A memorial service will be held Saturday at p.m. at the Williamsburg Community Chapel. A reception will follow at the church, Perkins said. In lieu of flowers, Mausteller’s family requests that contributions be given in her honor to the Williamsburg Christian Academy. CONTACT Aaron Koepper and Levi May at breezenews@gmail.com.
10/13 INSIDE
Check out a slideshow of students’ cartoon-paintings at BREEZEJMU.ORG. JAMES MOORE / THE BREEZE
This cartoon-painting of Pocahontas, by junior English major Mary Keegan, is one of many pieces done by students in THEA 303 and on display at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts.
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NEWS Giving back
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OPINION American nightmare U.S. society is responsible for the deterioration of the American Dream.
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LIFE Staying sober
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SPORTS SCRUM-diddlyumptious
Donations to JMU rise percent through the Office of Giving.
More than students take a two-month sobriety pledge.
The JMU women’s rugby team takes on Virginia Tech this weekend after coming in second to U.Va. at Rucktoberfest.