“An Emergent Belonging” is the newest addition to the Plains Art Museum’s S.P.A.C.E. (Sculpture Pad Art Collaborative Experiment), a collaboration among the Plains Art Museum, Concordia College, Minnesota State University Moorhead and North Dakota State University to produce public art.
Ashley Raduns ’18, Katelyn Mitchell ’18, Chelsea Steffes ’19, Elizabeth “Liz” Vought ’19, Helena Langr ’17 and Ruth Peterson’17 created the piece. The group of students was organized under local sculptor Dwight Mickelson's lead.
"It was fun to weave the nest together and being involved in the process was exciting. Seeing all of our hard work and months of planning come together in one coherent piece is really spectacular," said Vought.
The nest will be displayed until May 2019, just outside the Plains Art Museum on the sculpture pad. The students had to make sure that the nest would be sturdy enough to withstand two years in Fargo weather. On top of the cement block, the piece stands around 7 feet tall with many large branches jutting in various directions. The piece features cracked-open eggs, with one sitting in the middle of the array of branches, and others scattered near the bottom of the cement sculpture pad.
"The nest supported a frame of steel rods and a combination of apple and aspen branches," said Peterson.
"The eggs are made of cement, sand and peat moss mixed together. On top they are painted with blue, white, and brown outdoor paint," added Vought.
Because the piece will be on public display for so long, it was important to the group to think about how the art will affect the Fargo-Moorhead community.
"I think it’s important to involve the public in projects like this, to get people thinking creatively and to give the community a sense of ownership and engagement in projects like this. It brings people together and can be a catalyst for conversation and storytelling," said Peterson.
The artists’ thoughts about the community and how the piece would interact with its surroundings are how the concept of a nest emerged. Fargo-Moorhead is an area that holds many immigrants, and the artists say that was a consideration.
"Ideas of home and leaving the 'nest' were involved, as well as immigration and how people have to leave their homes and go out in the world. There are a lot of different meanings and personal interpretations and that's why we left the title ambiguous. One of our goals was to make a sculpture that was welcoming and interacted with the public," said Vought.
At the end of months of hard work, the Concordia student artists are happy with the finished product and grateful for the experience.
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