WP3: Cursory analysis

This next project will be on a sculpture featured in the Sheldon Art Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The name of the sculpture is “Fallen Dreamer”. It was created by the artist Tom Otterness in 1995. It is located directly centered in front of the Sheldon Art Museum on the second flight of steps. It is a lone piece of art on the cement, but close by there is dozens of other beautiful pieces. There are approximately seven steps and then the sculpture and about five more steps to the door. When you step off into the distant it is almost like this sculpture is a greeting card, or maybe the “vector of attention” to the museum. It is the first thing you notice when you walk by the museum.

The basic understanding of the sculpture is a head cut off directly below the chin, and displays a distinct human face. On his face it is easy to depict the eyes, nose, lips, chin, and eyebrows. His head is positioned lying on the right side of his face. It is no small head either. It stands about 32 by 42 by 44. The sculpture is made of what looks to be a bronze material. The front of it is very intricate with distinct facial features, and on the back, it has abstract lines or maybe scratches that tell a story.

From the looks of the “Fallen Dreamer” he looks to be in pain or maybe hurt. From the sculptures name I think about a good dream gone bad, or maybe the dream is so envious that the man would rather stay where he is then go back to reality. Another way to look at it is he’s cutoff from the neck up, you may be able to argue there is something wrong with his head. An Inference that came to my mind was the color of the sculpture; it could be an African American lying on the ground after just getting a beating. As you can see there are numerous stories or arguments that any random person walking by the art museum could accumulate.

There were a few rhetorical techniques of this sculpture I was able to identify. From the looks of the sculpture there could be loads of possible stories to tell. Since you only get the top of the body, I think the artist, Tom Otterness, wanted people to create their own ending of the story. The sculptures visual hierarchy is obviously the facial features of the man. His eyes, in particular were the first thing I noticed. It grabbed my attention and made me feel sad for the man because he looked like he was in pain. The second feature I noticed was his eyebrows. His eyes and eyebrows help make the connection that something is not right with this man. The visual hierarchy helps assist in the aspects of pathos and logos as well. Hopefully once we do the cultural context of the sculpture I will have found a definite argument.