I have written several papers in my life. Some were research papers, others were creative writing papers like stories and poems, but never before have I written a thought provoking, aesthetically driven paper. This was the first time that I needed to write a paper about art. Before I was given this assignment, I thought of art as being completely separate from writing. They were in the same realm of creativity, but never before had I thought to observe a piece of art and then provide a rhetorical paper on the concepts of the piece and the argument that it is making. When I was younger and attended grade school I recall doing book reports. The guidelines required you to read a book, then you were given a couple of options as to how you wanted to present your book to the class. There was often an option of drawing your favorite scene form the book in detail so that you could show the class what you imagined the characters looked like and give some simple settings that you thought were relative to the book. This time, it was the other way around. Now, I was given a sculpture and needed to observe the key points that I thought did the best job of creating an argument for the sculpture.
I was faced with a very difficult task. When I first saw the object that I was given I was taken aback. I asked myself “How am I going to write a 1,200 word paper on a large, bronze circle?” After much deep thought and observing, talking to, and analyzing my sculpture, I was put in a better position as to how I wanted to begin making an argument for it. The first draft of my paper had several problems. For starters, it was not long enough. When I was typing my paper I started to run out of ideas as to how I wanted to bring out a clearly stated argument, thus, leaving me a few hundred words short. I didn’t mention anything about Hamilton’s past life and his wonderful story about his long relationship that he had with Georgia O’Keeffe who is thought of today as one of the most important artists in history. Once I added in a historical background of Hamilton, I discovered that his relationship with O’Keeffe was very much represented in his sculpture, Fragment X-O. The concept of unity that I was trying to bring out in my argument was also present in the two’s loving relationship.
Peer reviews did wonders for me as well as reading some of my classmates papers. After reading through suggestions that I received in peer reviews I was able to get an outsider’s perspective on what they thought the strong points and weak points of my paper were. I developed a more well thought out conclusion and tried to elaborate a little but more on the idea of changing the name of the sculpture and thinking about it as Fragment of X-O as I briefly discussed with my instructor when I was making my initial observations. When I started running with that idea, I developed a stronger conclusion, one that I think brought out my argument better and made my entire paper easier for several different audiences to read.
The concept of unity is something that I have been embraced with immensely over the last five years of my life. While attending an all male private high school in Omaha called Creighton Prep, where the idea of brotherhood was one of the key focuses, I learned how important unity and solidarity are in life. The term unity means that there is a complete and pleasing whole. It means that more than one person come together to form a single bond and work towards a common goal. I have played on numerous sports teams, made several friendships, and I have also developed some outstanding relationships with my family, all of which I would not have been able to do without developing a keen sense of unity within the groups of people that I mentioned. I now am a member of a fraternity, where again the main focus is brotherhood. I have been surrounded by brotherhood and unity so much so that it has become a very valuable and important thing in my life and is something that I
wish to continue to surround myself with for as long as I live.The piece “Fragment X-O” was constructed by Juan Hamilton in the year 1991. Juan Hamilton, born in Texas as John Hamilton in 1946, is a potter and is most known for his extensive work that he did with Georgia O’Keeffe. Juan’s father was a Presbyterian minister who worked throughout Latin America in schools and churches in countries such as Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia. Their family was constantly moving throughout South America, but eventually Juan ended up attending high school in New York then, after graduating, he moved to Nebraska to go to college at Hastings College where he graduated with a double major and a degree in fine arts and literature. Juan Hamilton then went on to study sculpture for a year at Claremont but dropped out after finding a woman who he fell in love with who also happened to be a historian of Japanese and Chinese art. Hamilton moved to Japan with her for half a year, but shortly after divorced her. (Youtube)
In Juan Hamilton’s Fragment X-O, although we may not take it in to account at first, there is a sense of unity and completeness. The large, cast bronze sculpture is located on a small grassy hill in the Sheldon Art Garden which is in the middle Of The University of Nebraska’s City Campus. The sculpture appears to be a heavy bronze ring but as it slopes towards the ground it appears to not touch the ground too much, giving it a sense of lightness and gentleness. (Sheldon) When I viewed Hamilton’s sculpture, there was a lingering sense of unity and togetherness that I was surrounded by. The reason I was so entranced by the idea of unity was because of the fact that the sculpture is a circle, which is a symbol of unity.
Hamilton went to Ghostranch, New Mexico in the early 1970’s to work in
the kitchen of the Presbyterian conference center. Ghostranch was also where he met Georgia O’Keeffe. In 1973, when O’Keeffe could no longer see well enough to paint, Juan showed up at her doorstep looking to help her. Juan ended up doing odd jobs for O’Keeffe and helping her around the house. As O’Keeffe’s eyesight got continuously worse, Juan’s help became increasingly more useful to O’Keeffe. Many people believed that Juan was only helping Georgia out for his own good, but O’Keeffe and Hamilton developed a long lasting relationship that brought about many happier days for an elderly O’Keeffe. Fragment X-O does an outstanding job of conveying the kind of relationship that Juan had with Georgia. While working with O’Keeffe, Juan became very enveloped in pottery. The two worked on pottery together until their strong bond of love and art was broken when O’Keeffe died in 1986. After she died, she was cremated and Juan Hamilton scattered her 9ashes from Pedernal Mountain, just as O’Keeffe had requested. (Rose)
At first glance, the sculpture appears to be a single perfect sphere, but after viewing the sculpture from several different locations, and viewing it from up close, I realized that there were several smaller curved pallets that were all connected and welded or fused together to form the large ring. There appears to be a vast amount of weight in the object, but a very poor distribution of it. When viewing the sculpture head on, looking through the ring, it is possible to see that the ring is in fact somewhat oblong. It seems as though the sculpture has been pushed at the top of the circle and is becoming overwhelmed with weight. All of this weight is resting on what appears to be an incredibly small amount of surface area between the bottom of the ring and the concrete that it is stabilized on. The sculpture is also set on rasied ground, making it seem as though the object is completely suspended in the air. This again brings out a sense of lightness to what is actually an incredibly heavy object. All of the curved pallets are doing their job to withstand the weight of the ring and if one pallet were to be taken away from the ring, it is likely that the sculpture would fall or become drastically morphed into something that it was not meant to be. This brings me back to the sense of unity that I got not only from the fact that the sculpture is a circle, but also that it is a circle formed from many individual pieces that, once welded together form the complete circle.
A ring is possibly one of the most symbolic objects in the world. Marrying couples exchange wedding rings to show their life long love and devotion that they will show to their counter partner. It not only symbolizes their affection towards each other but it also shows an unbreakable bond that they will not be able to break until death. A ring is also used as a sign of connection in the movie, The Lord of The Rings.
The topography around Juan Hamilton’s, Fragment X-O brings out the true meaning of the name. The first thing that came to mind when I viewed this piece of art was that although the name of the sculpture is Fragment X-O, there is no ”X” to be found. That is, until you view Fragment X-O from the thinner side of the sculpture and look directly through it. Once you have done this, you will realize that a perfect “X” is created by the intersecting sidewalks. When viewed correctly, the middle of this “X” is located directly in the center point of the circle. When observing any kind of art, especially three dimensional sculptures, it is important to see the object from numerous different angles.
Another important point that I considered when I saw that there was a missing “X” in Fragment X-O was expanding off of the name of the sculpture. When reading the name as “Fragment of X-O,” the entire sculpture changes. The object now becomes, instead of its wholesome, complete self, just a fragment of something that is larger. Since a fragment is something that is not whole, it means that the sculpture is solely a part of a larger object. It is amazing that after being surrounded by so many concepts of unity and togetherness we still are left with the sculpture being a fragment. Hamilton’s sculpture is a fragment that symbolizes unity. Every person in the world can be considered as a fragment that represents something larger than themselves. What do you represent?
Works Cited:
Rose, Barbara. "Landmarks." The Public Art Program of the University of Texas at Austin. Web. 14 Dec 2009.
"Georgia O'Keeffe and "Juan" Hamilton." Youtube. Web. 14 Dec 2009.
"Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculptre Garden." University of Nebraska Lincoln 2. Web. 14 Dec 2009.
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