This Week

I took a walk around campus on Tuesday.



This is the back of a sculpture by Bob Haozous called Cultural Crossroads of America. It was installed on campus in 1996 and it caused a huge fuss. Why? Because there was barbed wire along the top. You can see it here, on the artist's website. It was eventually removed, I would guess because the university threatened to withhold $30,000 from the artist and force him to pay back the money he had received if he didn't remove it. It caused quite a controversy at the time. In an interview with the artist six years later, he said simply:

"The piece, Cultural Crossroads of the Americas. . .is concerned with the loss of the Mother Earth consciousness—it’s about the child of nature coming to the North and losing something important. The premise of the artwork concerns the migration of indigenous people to the North—to America—where you don’t need a mother."



I also saw this on campus. Yes, roses in bloom in November. Alongside this kind of thing:



Leaves changing colors.