Spring 2007 - Milton Academy

Artist Sarah Sze’s “The Edge of One of Many Circles”A Gift of Lisa and Richard Perry ’73, and Tracy Pun Palandjian ’89The GiftWhat looks fragile, whimsical,spun of thread, filled withlight—and at the same time isshaped of steel, designed tohold—balanced in the air, severalstories high—more than 800pounds of visual intricacy?What is complex, multidimensional,chock full of shapes, colors,objects and ideas, and at thesame time affirms the grace,simplicity and openness of anextraordinary building?Sarah Sze’s work, “The Edge ofOne of Many Circles” in theSchwarz Student Center bondssculpture and architecture to yieldan extraordinary artistic experience.The experience is new eachday, because her piece beckonsyou in from different startingpoints and draws you toward thecenter along different routes.Sarah Sze, Milton AcademyClass of 1987, has created installationsand permanent sculpturesin august museums andcultural landmarks all over theUnited States and the world,including Paris, London, Milan,Leipzig, Kanazawa (Japan), NewYork, Chicago, San Francisco,Boston, San Diego and Seattle.The DedicationOn September 29, 2007, MiltonAcademy dedicated “The Edge ofOne of Many Circles.” Trustees,faculty and students gathered tocelebrate the sculpture and thanktrustee Richard Perry and hiswife, Lisa. A collector of contemporaryart, Richard told studentsthat he felt they should be able,at Milton, to experience and beinspired by the work of thisextraordinarily accomplishedgraduate. Richard used theWizard of Oz story, replete withenergy and creativity, as inspirationfor his own speech. Onbehalf of the students, SamanthaYu and Aditya Basheer, co-headmonitors, accepted the sculpturethat distinguishes their StudentCenter.Sarah’s Words on Her Work“I begin by coming to the site,seeing the nature of the building,who uses it, how they use it, howthe space works,” Sarah says.“The Student Center is aboutflow. You move from a low, darkentrance to an immense openness.I wanted to emphasize thedrawing in. When you enter thebuilding you see a part of thesculpture, and then as you comein it opens up to a full structure—inthe part of the buildingthat is all about light and openness.I wanted the sculpture tocome cascading down from thehighest corner, and hover over abroken plane (the StudentCenter staircase being the ‘cut inthe flat plane’). You can view thepiece from all around it. It’s likethe piece at the San FranciscoMOMA (Museum of ModernArt) in that respect: You can seeit from above, from directlybelow and from all sorts ofangles. People will live with thepiece—rediscover it all the time.During the day it’s backlit andhas a skeletal quality. At night,looking from the outside, it’s litup. So it has a day life and anight life.”Ladders and trusses disguise thesteel cables that hold the sculpturefrom the ceiling struts, sothe work seems suspended in air.“It doesn’t look like a marionette,”Sarah says. “I wanted apiece where the structural andthe aesthetic are confusing: youdon’t know where one stops andthe other begins. The piece isabout building, and you can recognizeelements about building—bridges,towers, levels,building tools. As you look, theidea of fragile delicacy is sustained,but it’s pushed to thelimit by the strength implied inthe building elements. Experientially,I want people to be lost (inexploring), and then find a recognizablemoment, like the stairs.Continued on page 50Sarah Sze ’87 at work in August 2006 with a member of her staffSarah’s sculpture cascades from the highest point in the Schwarz StudentCenter ceiling, to hover above the staircase.49 Milton Magazine