Chris Duncan, associate
professor of visual arts, is displaying a 10,000-pound piece of abstract
sculpture this May at Pier Walk 2000 in Chicago. His work, “Suzhou,”
is a concrete and steel piece constructed during a month-long fellowship
residency at Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota last summer. Part of
his inspiration for the piece came from a 1997 term abroad experience in
China, where he studied many of the large “standing stones”
typical of classical Chinese gardens. Duncan also is to exhibit small
bronzes in “On the City: Urban Realities and Fantasies,” curated
by art critic Irving Sandler for the New York Studio School Gallery in New
York City. Earlier this year, Duncan's maquettes — small studies for
large work — were shown at the Mayor's Design Forum Maquette
Exhibition in Saint Paul, Minn., and at the Pierwalk 2000 Maquette
Exhibition at the State of Illinois Building, Chicago. In November, Duncan
was visiting artist at West Virginia University, where he delivered a talk
on his work. He showed sculpture and drawings in “Linear
Variation” at Troy's RCCA Gallery, and in the “Art of the
Millennium/Downtown Windows” installation project in Albany.
George Gmelch, professor of
anthropology, is the author of “Rules and Respect: The Culture of
Professional Baseball” in the winter issue of the Anthropology of
Work Review. The article looks at some of the values and cultural
characteristics of professional baseball, and at the development of
ballplayers' social identity as professionals.