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Vawter Memorial

Category: Historical ; Memorial/Monument ; Outdoor Sculpture ; Water Feature/Fountain

John Terrell Vawter (born January 15, 1830) was a businessman-banker from Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana. He donated the Civil War memorial monument, known as the Vawter Memorial, which features a sculpture by Rudolph Schwarz. The monument is located on the north lawn of the Johnson County Courthouse square in Franklin, Indiana. The memorial features a sculpture of a standing male Union soldier, high atop a pedestal. He holds a rifle in his proper right hand and his proper left hand is shading his eyes as he looks into the distance. Weaponry includes a revolver on the proper right hip, a sword on the proper left hip, and a cartridge box on the belt. On the front of the pedestal in relief is a bronze eagle and a portrait of John T. Vawter, and on the rear is a flag. All four sides have bronze lions’ heads, which issue water into a semi-circular fountain basin. Rudolf Schwarz (June 1866 – 14 April 1912) was an Austrian-born American sculptor. Schwarz emigrated to Indianapolis in December of 1897 to help complete the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, which was designed by German architect Bruno Schmitz. He lived a simple life, almost secluded, and was not well known by the public. For the last seven years of his life, however, Schwarz created and directed a class in sculpture at the John Herron Art School, now Herron School of Art and Design. Schwarz is known from at least 30 sculptural works throughout the state of Indiana, many of which are war memorials.

Verge

Category: Outdoor Sculpture

Verge is a nonrepresentational sculpture that, according to the artist, speaks about relationships and dependence. The central wood piece represents how far someone can push you before you break, while the metal pieces represent how much you can lean on someone before you can no longer stand on your own. The artist has said that most of her artwork comes from a negative place, and creating the work helps her work through her emotions. Kylie Little was born in Goshen, IN and graduated from University of Indianapolis with a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art and Pre-Art Therapy, with a concentration in Sculpture. As of 2019 she is a MFA candidate at Georgia State University. Little is known for creating work on large scales using natural materials.

Veterans Memorial Obelisk

Category: Historical ; Memorial/Monument ; Outdoor Sculpture ; Water Feature/Fountain

Veteran’s Memorial Plaza, once known as Obelisk Square, is located immediately north of the Indiana War Memorial. The Obelisk and Fountain rise from the center of the plaza, while flagpoles bearing the flags of each of the 50 United States stand on the east and west sides. Completed in 1930, the park was originally a broad concrete square, but was converted into a landscaped park with trees in 1976 as part of the celebration of America’s Bicentennial. In 2004, the park was again reconfigured to return the ‘line of sight’ aspect of the original architects’ plan. Large ordinance pieces, including tanks and eight World War I German cannons, originally sat at the outside corners of the plaza. During World War II, six of the cannons were melted down for scrap metal. The remaining cannons were moved to new locations when the plaza was converted into a park in the mid-1970s. Centrally located in the plaza are the Obelisk and Fountain. The Obelisk is a 100-foot shaft of black Berwick granite, ornamented at its base with four bronze bas-relief tablets, each four by eight feet. The Obelisk represents “the hopes and aspirations of the nation, a symbol of the power of nature to reproduce and continue the life of the country.” The tablets represent the four fundamentals on which the nation’s hopes are founded: Law, Science, Religion, and Education. They were set into place in the fall of 1929 under the supervision of Henry Hering, the primary sculptor of the plaza. The pinnacle of the Obelisk is covered with gold leaf. The fountain is 100 feet in diameter and made from pink Georgia marble and terrazzo. Henry Hering (1874-1949) was a New York-based architectural sculptor well known for his allegorical figures in traditional Beaux Arts and Art Deco style. His work can be found in most major U.S. cities. From indianawarmemorials.org

Vibe Street

Category: Mural

Vibe Street is named for the way the colors in the piece create vibrant, visual harmonies and for the way the traffic vibrates overhead. It is a multicolor, striped composition comprised of more than 600 six-inch vertical stripes. Causey created the piece using 18 colors found in the surrounding environment. Every color in Vibe Street is dependent on the others, finding its depth or brightness in contrast to those next to it. As the eye travels back and forth over the piece, colors seem to light up from section to section. Funding for Vibrant Corridors, a city-wide effort to create murals in key underpasses and gateways around downtown Indianapolis, is provided in part by the Lilly Foundation and the Glick Fund, a fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and Downtown Indy. This mural was completed during the 2014 Lilly Global Day of Service with the help of more than 200 Lilly Employees.

Vicarious

Category: Electronic/Technology ; Outdoor Sculpture

The work of Greg Hull often involves movement, even incorporating light into some of his pieces. Both of these are evident in Vicarious (although the lights only come on at night). Vicarious was influenced by Hull’s visit to Scotland and Ireland, countries where his heritage lay. What relationships between Scotland and Ireland can you make to this installation? Hull also has a large installation in the parking garage at the Indianapolis International Airport. Quoted from http://indplsartcenter.org/Assets/uploads/Artspark-brochure-2012.pdf

Vietnam War Memorial

Category: Historical ; Outdoor Sculpture

Designed by Indiana-born architect Patrick Brunner, this unique memorial dedicated to two different wars is made from one large cylinder that is divided proportionally to represent the number of casualties from each war. The Vietnam section of the memorial is slightly larger than the Korean section. The two sections are placed across from one another on the American Legion Mall, representing the distance in time between the two wars. Excerpts of letters written by Hoosier soldiers to family and friends at home are engraved on the convex sides of the cylinder sections, one of the most powerful components of this memorial.

View from Fountain Square

Category: Mural

The artist’s goal in creating this mural was to express Fountain Square’s neighborhood character: old and new, with both rich history and evolving culture. She combined design inspirations from traditional still life paintings and colorful surrealistic landscapes, and studying precedents based on the fact that Fountain Square’s earliest residents were German. Inspired by the styles of Max Ernst, Felix Nussbaum, and Helene Cramer, to name a few, the artist worked to set Fountain Square in the greater context of the state of Indiana by including peonies and cardinals, the state flower and bird. Hidden details provide whimsy: the reflection of the fountain across the street is painted in the cardinal’s eye, the Indy skyline as seen from Fountain Square is painted on the horizon line, and several distinctive houses found in the neighborhood are disguised in the flower petals. Since the painting was commissioned bySoutheast Neighborhood Development (SEND), the artist included the community in her process by encouraging people passing by to join her in painting it. The hope is that every time they walk past the mural they will be able to spot the contribution they made and feel even more connected to the neighborhood. Alicia Zanoni is a full-time painter who moved to Indianapolis in 2016. She maintains a studio at the Harrison Center.

Viewfinders

Category: Outdoor Sculpture

Artist Eric Nordgulen created these three figural forms in 1996. Serving as visual links between downtown’s buildings and pedestrians, the figures contain both clear glass that makes them transparent, and lenses that reflect images of the surrounding architecture and passing foot traffic. The lenses (“fresnel” type) are the same that are used for theatre lighting and also for page magnification: if you get close to the sculpture, you will see an inverted image of yourself in several of the lenses. In this way, the viewer becomes part of the sculpture. As with most of Nordgulen’s work, the questions raised by the sculpture have to do with self-awareness and how we understand the world. Do we see it as it is, or how we interpret it to be? Are we part of the urban landscape, or is the urban landscape part of us?

Villagers Bell Tower

Category: Outdoor Sculpture

There were 80 villagers who went to the school which was located on the site at the turn of the century. The school had a bell in a small tower that was rung three times a day. This project, honors the heart of that community the the history of the school, also has 80 bells (that move with the wind). All materials and labor were donated by the community. The bells were cut-out and welded by a local trade school. All the art (160 images) was created by the students.

Virginia Ave Alley Graffiti I

Category: Archive ; Mural ; Temporary

This robot-inspired graffiti piece is part of a body of work that makes up one of the few sanctioned graffiti areas left in Indianapolis, IN. The alleyway just east of Virginia Avenue in Fountain Square stands as a testament to the talent of the young, aspiring graffiti community as well as the more well-known graffiti writers in the area. Constantly changing, this living alleyway represents the very nature of the art form and the state of graffiti in Indianapolis.

Virginia Ave Alley Graffiti II

Category: Mural ; Temporary

This letter-inspired graffiti piece is part of a body of work that makes up one of the few sanctioned graffiti areas left in Indianapolis, IN. The alleyway just east of Virginia Avenue in Fountain Square stands as a testament to the talent of the young, aspiring graffiti community as well as the more well-known graffiti writers in the area. Constantly changing, this living alleyway represents the very nature of the art form and the state of graffiti in Indianapolis.

Virginia Ave Alley Graffiti III

Category: Archive ; Mural ; Temporary

This character-inspired graffiti piece is part of a body of work that makes up one of the few sanctioned graffiti areas left in Indianapolis, IN. The alleyway just east of Virginia Avenue in Fountain Square stands as a testament to the talent of the young, aspiring graffiti community as well as the more well-known graffiti writers in the area. Constantly changing, this living alleyway represents the very nature of the art form and the state of graffiti in Indianapolis.

Visionaries

Category: Electronic/Technology ; Outdoor Sculpture ; Temporary

As a part of PreEnactIndy, artist Quincy Owens installed four “stained glass” light sculptures on power poles near the Monon Trail at 16th Street and Yandes Street. These pieces glow at night, and may be permanent. Sponsored by Harrison Center for the Arts, the collaborative theater event took place on October 7th, 2017. Through interactive performances, this preenactment envisioned through interactive performances what a neighborhood ought to be. This public event gave attendees fully-immersive experiences of the active, healthy, and well-designed neighborhood the area deserves, including inspiring public art.

Visual and Mental Paradoxes

Category: Outdoor Sculpture

Over the years there have been a number of programs to place artwork on Mass Ave: this piece is the remnant of one of them, the MassAttractions program that was initiated by the Riley Area Development Corporation. The artist is Jerald Jacquard, who was a professor at IU Bloomington at the time of installation. The firefighters’ union contributed the site, and the artist’s fee was raised by private donors. It has been here since 1999, even before the new wing on the union house. Jerald Jacquard was born in Lansing, Michigan, in 1937. He earned his B.A. in 1960 and his M.A. in 1962 from Michigan State University. Jacquard established a sculpture department at the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1967 and was a professor of art at Indiana University for more than 25 years. He has been awarded several fellowships, including a Fulbright Scholarship to Florence, Italy, in 1963; a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1972; and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Jacquard has works in collections including the Kresge Art Museum at Michigan State University; the Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Michigan; the Indianapolis Museum of Art; and the White River State Park, Indianapolis.

Visual Melody

Category: Indoor Sculpture

“Visual Melody,” the very first piece of public art installed at Zionsville Town Hall, was designed, created and installed by Indiana artist Susan Tennant. It can be viewed by all Town Hall guests in the building’s front entrance lobby. When the new Zionsville Town Hall opened in fall of 2017, one of Zionsville’s Mayor Haak’s goals was to add artwork to the various walls. A Town Hall Art Task Force made up of Zionsville artists and business owners selected Tennant’s proposal for the Town Hall lobby after a month-long process in which Indiana artists were invited to submit proposals for their vision for the space. The Town Hall Art Task Force worked closely with the Arts Council of Indianapolis to create an open call for public art in Town Hall. Tennant’s goal was to create a sculpture that harmoniously weaves its way through and into the wall space and at the same time to represent Zionsville Town services and patrons who use the adjacent Big-4 Rail Trail. In “Visual Melody,” Tennant weaves together fiberglass rods and geometric wooden shapes enhanced by bold colors to create layers of dimensionality and emphasize the concept volume without mass. “The intersections of horizontal lines with the vertical constructions reference a continuum of a playful dance. Each line, or fiberglass rod, is orchestrated to another so there is no apparent starting or ending point,” Tennant said. When the Art Task Force saw Tennant’s proposal, they were impressed by both her use of color and the method in which she used the entire wall and not just parts of it. “My intention was to create an artwork that would uniquely represent the energetic system and association of the Zionsville Town services and nearby Big-4 Rail Trail,” Tennant said. “Something that visitors and employees would find interesting, playful and entice conversation.” Tennant’s sculpture can be viewed in the Town Hall lobby. For more information about Tennant, visit https://susantennant.com

Vizet Mural

Category: Mural

This mural on the top half of a building above the roofline features the common graffiti tag Vizet in white letters with a blue background. It also says “try and stop me,” referring to the stop sign symbol the tag is covering (although the sign itself says “CO-OP”).

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