Lao Hu

In 2008 and 2010 I travelled to SIAS University in Xingzheng, Henan Province, Peoples Republic of China to with a group of American artists Invited to make sculptures during a residency at SIAS University. I spent a total of 11 weeks in China, and worked with a foundry to create a permanent outdoor sculpture for the college campus art collection ("Lao Hu", 2010, bronze, steel, stones, 60 X 100 X 60"). Made during the Year of the Tiger, the piece was built from tree branches cast in bronze and then welded into the form of a tiger, with Chinese calligraphic elements welded to the surface. When examined closely, (my student translators assured me) the viewer could make out the phrases and statistics in Chinese alluding to the endangered status of the tiger in the wild.