Anyone driving down College Street recently may have spotted an interesting new art piece on the grounds of the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art.
In the lake in front of the museum, two life-sized statues of a man in a bunny suit protrude from the water. This sculpture attracts a lot of attention from people on the road.
“For a split second I thought it was real, and it actually freaked me out," said Cannon Hyche, freshman in health services administration. "I had to get a picture.”
This new sculpture, made by Alex Podesta, has been brought to the grounds of the museum as a part of Out of the Box: A Juried Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition.
The featured sculptures were selected by juror Willie Cole from hundreds of entries. For a year, the museum will present these finalists from artists around the country. Then Cole will pick three of the works as grand prize winners.
Charlotte Hendrix, communications and marketing specialist for the museum, said that developing an outdoor sculpture program is a long-term goal.
“Through charitable donations, two sculptures were added to the permanent collection from the first juried exhibition in 2013: Angles of Repose and Dreams of Flying," Hendrix said. "We’ve moved these works to the museum entrance so that visitors have an immediate encounter with art.”
The Out of the Box exhibition first opened in 2013 for the museum’s 10th anniversary and was met with such a positive response that museum officials decided to make it a biennial competition.
The bunny sculpture is called "Self-Portrait as Bunnies (The Bathers)," and represents childhood ideas filtered through the eyes of an adult. "Self-Portrait" is joined by 10 other pieces; "Tree of Good and Evil," a sculpture by Charles Pilkey, is also featured in the exhibit.
The piece is made from found tools and machine parts along with bronze and steel figures welded in a tree shape. The sculpture is a metaphor for humans' modern relationship with technology.
All of the exhibit's pieces can be seen at the museum Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and on Sundays 1-4 p.m. Admission is free.
Updated on Oct. 9 at 10:28 a.m. to correct an incorrect quote from Hendrix an an error in the name of the sculpture.
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