Administration Finance & Focus

PUBLIC ART COLLECTION

Focus on campus art: ‘Your Move’ looks like it came out of a fairy tale

By Richard Zagrzecki

For students who live in the Calhoun Lofts residential apartments, it’s hard to miss the three large gourd-like sculptures that sit right in the center of the courtyard area.

The artwork, which was created in 2011 by Lawrence Argent, is called “Your Move.” The inspiration for the name originates from the granite paver system they sit on that makes them appear as game pieces similar to chess.

Mike Guidry, curator for the UH Public Art Collection, said Argent incorporated gourds in the design because of their universality.

“Gourds appear in most cultures around the world and are utilized in numerous ways from a food source to containers,” he said. “Like Argent’s other work, he takes something so recognizable and almost mundane and blows it up to a scale that you have to pay attention to and consider in a new light.”

Two of the three pieces are hand carved out of solid granite, while the third is bronze. They have been described as having an otherworldly presence that makes them appear as if they were transported straight out of a fairy tale.

Argent is also well known for a 40-foot-tall fiberglass and steel sculpture of a blue bear called “I See What You Mean” that stands outside of the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.