Sunday, October 16, 2011
By HILARY CRISAN
champion
Sculptor David Colbert focuses on a subject many people do not understand: geometry.
Colbert focused on geometric patterns for most of his life, as well as their interrelationships and their structural characteristics. Through focusing on five particular geometric shapes — the tetrahedron, the octahedron, the cube, the icosahedron and the dodecahedron — he pursued a simple vision of beauty.
On Thursday, Colbert debuted a sculpture at Kent State University Trumbull Campus next to the Technology Building. “Tetra” is an interactive sculpture in which students are welcome to sit and relax. It consists of a limestone-gravel circle of about 40 feet and stainless-steel truncated tetrahedron tables and seats that create a 35-foot triangle. Locally grown sunset-maple trees surround the entire piece. The sculpture represents the relationship between arts and sciences.
Colbert was commissioned $92,000 to do this sculpture including fabrication and installation. The cost of the raw steel was about $8,000.
The Ohio Percent for Art Program commissioned the piece. Since 1990, this program has provided state funds for the acquisition, commissioning and installation of works of art. Out of 56 artists, Colbert was chosen.
People are welcome to sit at these tetrahedrons, based on Colbert’s desire to sit outdoors in college.
“I want to make it a place that draws people in,” he says, “becoming a place where people want to be, where their spirit can relax and expand.”
He chose tetrahedrons and a circle because they are the simplest geometric forms. “It possesses such singular power and beauty,” he said.
The tables are set in a high/low pattern, which will create many arrays of patterns and textures as the viewer moves through the piece. Since stainless steel is a sensitive reflector, light will transform the piece throughout the day. Because of Ohio’s harsh winters, the snow will mound on the triangular tops, and ice will make them crystalline.
Colbert, 55, has been doing sculpture for about 30 years. He was born in rural Connecticut, which served as a large inspiration to his work.
“Being in a beautiful environment inspires my work,” he said, “so I live in a beautiful place.”
Other influences include painters Josef Albers, Ad Reinhardt and Agnes Martin. Colbert received a general liberal-arts degree in college but pursued art on his own.
Colbert’s abstract work creates a connection between the person and nature. In his artist’s statement, he says, “I feel drawn to uncertain and mysterious qualities of light and space. What emerges from the juxtaposition of these forms is revealed in all its complexity, time and changing light.”
For more information, go to www.davidcolbert.com.