Client: Lafayette, Indiana
Location: Lafayette, IN, United States
Completion date: 2017
Artwork budget: $75,000
Project Team
Public Art Agent
Robert L. Barnum
City of Lafayette
Overview
WE STAND TALL was created from a national competition to create a sculpture for Lafayette, Indiana. WE STAND TALL as a large-scale public symbol celebrates the Bicentennial anniversary of the state and city. WE STAND tall is centered Downton in the city and is a visual celebration of Lafayette, its history and more importantly its people. The words cut into the sculptures body plates and the title were chosen by Lafayette’s under privileged children. WE STAND TALL is a telling and somewhat inspirational beacon lit 24/7.
Goals
WE STAND TALL stands as an ideal example of my life long artistic goal to create public art or art in general that is a personal statement about a unique time and place, This 24’ tall public statement also stands as an example of my life long creative goal to bring the human story back to the public arena. I am not interested in accuracy or photographic detail. My work is driven by exaggerated or stylized form married into contemporary long life low maintenance metals. The critical design priority in my 30-year professional quest has been to create multiple forms of content. The stylized implied kinetic of the figure, animal, sky or land forms stands as a foundation for cut word or cut symbolic image content. In essence, you not only view my public sculptures but you also read them like organic shaped pages in a figure form book. This cut word content design allows at some level personal or community ownership. The words cut into the sculptures body plate were chosen by the underprivileged children of Lafayette, Indiana.
Process
WE STAND TALL required a good working relationship with the City of Lafayette and especially the City Manager’s office. The City Manager’s Office played a critical role in communicating with city services to solicit the request that those children of the city challenged in one way or another had the opportunity to choose the cut word content and even the title for this large-scale creative beacon that is engineered to last for centuries. The goal by design, by engineering and by material choice was to create a 24’ tall public statement that is weather/wind resistant, cannot be damaged by sunlight, is safe /ADA accessible and will require almost zero maintenance. It seemed important when creating a public statement celebrating 200 years of history to create a public sculpture that would serve and inspire the future viewer 200 years into the future. WE STAND TALL is fabricated out of thick 6000 series aluminum. This aluminum when carefully finished and lit 24/7 has an almost jewel like presence that can be viewed at a considerable distance.
Additional Information
WE STAND TALL is not about an artist or what that artist does. WE STAND TALL is a creative symbol, an icon dedicated to a unique city and its people.