After reviewing nearly 100 images of artworks to choose from, I made a selection of 12 artists’ works that stood out from all the submissions for the 2017–18 Out of the Box: A Juried Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition. I am grateful to have spent time considering the multitude of artistic endeavors in contemporary sculpture and to arrive at this final selection that is presented on the grounds of Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. Thank you to the museum staff for this invitation and congratulations to the artists!
Among the selected sculptures, I was struck by a number of artists who are embracing the concerns, materials, and forms of the everyday. In this approach, some artists repurposed, combined, or refer to architectural elements such as windows, wooden floors, and benches to reimagine the places that connect us, while other works metaphorically and literally speak to where we are. For example, an articulated square of artificial turf indicates the You Are Here spot or an all-mirror-surfaced, iconic Q stands for WHAT’S IN THE QUEUE? These works suggest a kind of perpetual temporality in our daily lives as we constantly try to locate ourselves in the world, and at the same time, are waiting to see what moves into position next. The sentiment of navigating our location in time and space is also articulated by the text based work that spells out “Eventually/Everything.”