Gourd Man - Skokie, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 42° 01.567 W 087° 45.437
16T E 437309 N 4652952
Seven expressive eyeless heads stacked one upon the other. This unusual sculpture found me while I was looking for something else.
Waymark Code: WMBZQ7
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 07/08/2011
Views: 2
From January 2009 Skokie Art Guild publication:
"The new and busy Public Arts Advisory Committee recommended a contract with artist Shencheng Xu to install a sculpture called "Gourd Man" in Village Green. Under terms of the contract, the sculpture is not to exceed $26,220. Made of bronze and extending 13.5-feet in the air, "Gourd Man" was created in 2005 by the artist.
"My most recent sculptures combine human forms with other life forms to express the relationship between nature and man," said Xu in an artist's statement presented to the Village Board. "Reproducing the human form is no longer my main focus. I am developing a language of forms that I use in various combinations to create visual stories."
From 2004 to 2008, Xu has had five winning public sculpture designs in the Lincoln Park Community Art Initiative Outdoor Sculpture Competition. In 2001, he won a competition in Baltimore called Artscape -- Monument Sculpture. He has also completed a dozen sculptures in China. "My work is directly linked to my life experience," Xu said. "The world that I live in, my responses to it and any insights I gain are all sources of inspiration. By making art, I explore the magic of the natural world while expressing my own life story."
More about all the art in the Village Green:
(
visit link)
Note 7/13/11: I was just going through some of my other sculpture pictures and discovered there is another Gourd Man on the campus of Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago at approximately N41.98078 W87.71760.