Hand Sculpture Installed at Purdue University

The main event this week was the installation of my monumental sculpture "Man and Technology" on the campus of Purdue University.

Dereck Sheroan from JBB Inc. on Hardinsburg brought their new 23 ton crane to our studio on Tuesday and loaded the sculpture onto the rented flat bed truck.

As soon as we crossed the bridge into Indiana, we found ourselves in the middle of a convoy of classic cars.

We got a lot of 'double takes' as we drove up the road with the 7 foot tall hand. But, ours was not the only strange load going up the highway that day. This is a German WWII era tank at a rest stop.

"Are we there yet?" It was a very long day before we got to Lafayette, Indiana for the night.

Early the next morning, we went to Picket Park on campus. Meg took this detail shot of one of their "Astrogummies" while we were waiting for everyone to show up. One of Purdue's alumni took seeds of Sweet Gums to the International Space Station with him. This is from one of those well-traveled seeds.

Purdue provided this crane and an operator for the installation.

I moved the truck and sculpture into position. This photo shows the Penske rental truck that we use for major installations.

While the crane was setting up, Meg snapped this well composed picture that features one of the other sculptures in the park.

I rigged up the sculpture for the lift.

On the left is Tom Eisman, a Professor of Aviation and chairman for the visual arts committee. Tom was my contact for the entire project. He put in a lot of time and effort to see it come to fruition.

This is the finished sculpture in its new home.

An alternatate view...

...and another view.

While there, I checked on "Flourish", which I installed at Purdue over 5 years ago.

Tom invited us to also check out their new Butterfield sculpture in front of the art building. In the background is a very large bronze from Spain.

Between those two sculptures is a large, temporary installation of willow and red maple saplings. I enjoyed walking through the maze of forms - an intense amount of labor went into the piece. (all photos on this post copyright Meg White)