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Creation Myth by Tom Otterness

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Creation Myth
Two of the largest sculptures in Creation Myth at the edge of the Centennial Sculpture Garden facing North Goodman Street
ArtistTom Otterness
Year2011-12
MediumSculpture, Limestone and bronze: Several pieces
LocationMemorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York

Creation Myth is a series of limestone and bronze sculptures created by Tom Otterness for the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG)'s Centennial Sculpture Park in 2012.

Part of Creation Myth visible at the corner of University Avenue and North Goodman Street, Rochester, NY

Description

Creation Myth, a public sculpture series created in 2012, spans the rightmost block outside of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery. The piece consists of cast bronze and carved limestone sculptures that range in size from less than half a foot tall to over six feet tall. There are individual forms in amounts going into the tens, making it hard to identify when exactly one sculpture ends and another starts, and thus how many specific sculptures there are in the series. They are, however, arranged into three general clusters, each using a large limestone sculpture as a focal point with smaller bronze sculptures positioned radially around it. Each sculpture depicts a relatively simplistic humanoid character, stylized similarly to the characters Otterness has used in many of his other public sculptures works like Tipping Point and The Public Unconcious. Their heads are composed of perfect spheres with non-angular, bendable-looking limbs protruding from the torso, represented by different geometric forms between statues including cones, spheres, and cubes. Carved into each head is a simple smile, consisting of only two dots as the eyes with a slightly upward curved line acting as the mouth, calling to mind the commonly used “smiley-face” emoticon. Despite their similarities in design, there is a lot of variance in the positioning between the different sculptures. Most of the limestone sculptures depict figures laying down or standing still, appearing almost unfinished as some stand without limbs while others are still set into large limestone blocks. Meanwhile, many of the bronze statues are positioned around the stone ones, poised as if interacting with them. These smaller sculptures can be seen taking actions like carving, sitting on, and hoisting up parts of their, often larger, stone counterparts.

Symbolism and theme

Selected from a group of fifty artists to create a piece for the MAG’s sculpture garden, Tom Otterness conceptualized the sculpture series Creation Myth as a parody of the Pygmalion myth. Though the initial story tells of a man who carves a woman out of ivory and brings her to life with a kiss, Otterness’ recreation challenges the idea of those gender roles by implying that the sculptor is the woman through the use of the basic shapes society associates with the binary genders. Otterness further exemplifies this female-empowering series by alluding to Rochester native, Susan B. Anthony, and her contributions to the anti-slavery and suffragette movement. By introducing this social commentary on gender’s relation to societal power dynamics through the use of his signature ‘cartoon-like’ figures, Otterness allows for people to engage with a heavy subject matter in a way that is easier to swallow. That being said, Otterness has acknowledged that the nature of public art eliminates some opportunity for artists to convey their exact statement behind a piece leading people to be more likely to take away their own ideas from the work instead. Rather than describing this as a negative, Otterness instead remarked that he thinks that the meaning every individual takes away from the work on their own is the piece’s “true meaning.”

A small bronze figure hoisting up a large, disembodied limestone arm, presumably missing from a nearby "unfinished" sculpture.

Material and creation

Being one of the largest scale projects he’d ever done at the time, Otterness created the sculptures with the intention that it would be climbed, played upon, and viewed from any angle by the people who walk by. He exemplified this through modeling it in CAD the way it would be observed in space and carving out textural nuance that people could only notice when feeling the sculptures with their own hands. Unlike some of the projects he had worked on before, Otterness made the choice to use limestone as a sculptural material for one of the first times, pushing him to carve onsite to create the works rather than just setting them up. Having used a regular carving tool set, the texture and lines of the this process being seen when one looks close to the figures. The statues that were not limestone were cast out of bronze, a material that Otterness is famous for using throughout many of his works, in a foundry and brought onsite.

Controversy

Despite being a world famous artist, there is a lot of pushback against having Otterness' work in public areas that hold status due to his 1977 work Shot Dog Film in which Otterness shot and killed a dog on film. This act not only incited an investigation into Otterness by the Animal Protection Institute, but also protests against his installations.

References

  1. Marlborough Gallery, "Tom Otterness: Tipping Point," 2017, http://www.tomotterness.net/attachment/en/54077dc24aa62c276f6eea8c/TextTwoColumnsWithFile/59bab721f6c0386f48ce920f.
  2. Tom Otterness, The Public Unconscious (New York: Marlborough Chelsea, 2007), 23.
  3. Rebecca Rafferty, “ART: Otterness sculpture complete; MAG sculpture park proceeds,” City Magazine, November 7, 2012, https://www.roccitymag.com/arts-entertainment/otterness-sculpture-complete-mag-sculpture-park-proceeds-2153300
  4. “Tom Otterness: Creating ‘Creation Myth’,” University of Rochester, July 16th, 2013, 01:09, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCvg8bJ4xds.
  5. Walter Robinson, “Tom Otterness, ‘Creation Myth,’” (New York: Marlborough, 2014), 3.
  6. William J. Simmons, “TOM OTTERNESS: Creation Myth,” accessed October 13th, 2024, https://brooklynrail.org/2014/12/artseen/tom-otterness-creation-myth/.
  7. Robinson, “Tom Otterness, ‘Creation Myth,’” 3.
  8. Tom Otterness, The Public Unconscious (New York: Marlborough Chelsea, 2007), 3.
  9. “Tom Otterness: Creating ‘Creation Myth’,” 02:06.
  10.  “Tom Otterness: Creating ‘Creation Myth’,” 00:09.
  11. “Tom Otterness: Creating ‘Creation Myth’,” 00:38.
  12. “Tom Otterness: Creating ‘Creation Myth’,” 00:27.
  13. “Tom Otterness: Creating ‘Creation Myth’,” 00:58.
  14. Otterness, The Public Unconscious, 3.
  15. Jackson Arn, "When Does Avant-Garde Art Go Too Far?", accessed October 20th, 2024, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-avant-garde-art-far.