WP3 Rough Draft

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.

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. 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 untiy was because of the fact that the sculpture is a circle, which is a symbol of unity.

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 th

e concrete that it is stabilized on. 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 bug 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.

WP3: Statement of Purpose

Writing project number three asks us to analyze a sculpture in the Sheldon Art Garden. This assignment is different than the others that we have had in the past. Unlike past writing projects where we came up with an argument for a photograph or a comic, this time we get to work with a sculpture. Some people may find it hard to believe that art and sculptures are making arguments, but in actuality there is not a single piece of art that doesn’t make an argument. My job as a writer is to find out what argument Juan Hamilton is trying to make in his sculpture entitled “Fragment X-O.” The easiest way for me to discover the argument that Juan Hamilton is making is by analyzing the sculpture from several different contexts and finding rhetorical elements in my sculpture that clearly bring out the argument.

One huge difference that I believe is beneficial in finding an argument in my sculpture is that for the first time I get to deal with something that is three dimensional. This is one extremely important aspect of writing project three because there are now an infinite number of contexts that I can view my sculpture from. Although this brings about many new possible arguments, it can also make finding the argument much tougher. If viewing my sculpture with no means of discovering its purpose and the argument it is making, it may seem like an incredibly boring and dull sculpture, but in fact there is an enormous amount of symbolism in the sculpture that must be discovered in order to build a well thought out argument.

Another big element that I will need to spend some time talking about is topography. Once the topography is understood it will be much easier to conceive am argument. The topography has an enormous effect on the argument being made and the sculpture itself. The natural and physical features that surround the sculpture can influence the ways that Fragment X-O brings out the argument. Since Fragment X-O is placed in the middle of a college campus, there is a much larger audience. The audience that I will be working with will consist primarily of classmates and most importantly my professor who will be grading it based on guidelines that need to be followed in order to obtain a better grade. Although my most important audience is my professor, anyone who can access the internet is also my audience which means that I will have to write in a way that appeals to several people.

Since my sculpture is not very detailed, it is crucial that I am able to expand on the symbolism and ethos that I find. If I can outline and organize my thoughts and ideas above in an easily readable paper, it will bring out the clear and present argument that Juan Hamilton is trying to make in his sculpture, Fragment X-O.