Tom Otterness – Feats of Strength
“After collaborating to create an art piece inspired by Otterness’s work, a common agreement between the significance of the artwork emerged. Feats of Strength is a symbol of community and perseverance.”
Video: Emma Nickoloff / Elyse Miyake
About the Artist
Tom Otterness is known for his public sculptures that work as conversation pieces.
Born in 1952 in Wichita, KS, Tom Otterness developed a passion for art, pursuing a career in the Art Students League program in New York City. As he gained his reputation through museum exhibits and galleries, he joined a group called CoLab, which consisted of 50 New York artists who worked together in exhibitions in 1973. As he taught himself how to sculpt, Otterness developed a love for creating the cartoonish, geometric figures that he has become known for today. With the influence of postmodernism and contemporary ideas stirring in the media, Otterness looked to engage viewers with art in the public sphere, emphasizing ideas of class, sex, gender, and race. While his bronze figures often sport playful smiles and energetic poses, there is an underlying social critiquing underneath his works.
Otterness notably in 2005, became the first designer of a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade float that came from an artistic profession. While most of his work is featured in New York, his public art continues to project itself on a worldwide scope.
About Feats of Strength
Probably one of the most distinguished figures in the piece, Otterness’s work insights and inspires the audience.
The underlying questions about social class come into play in Otterness’s 1999 piece, Feats of Strength, where seven of his iconic figures in various class standings work in the midst of the Western Washington University college campus. The figures carry sandstone boulders that double their size, and while they carry these boulders through Haskell Plaza, they seem to blend seamlessly into the environment. While the figures represent workers of various classes from the San Juan Islands in the 90s, students can attribute the work to their busy lives spent studying and working.
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- Here is another close up image of one of the seven figures in Otterness’s work. The figure is depicted carrying a sandstone boulder with the help of a few others.
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- A close up of one of the seven figures in Otterness’s “Feats of Strength.”
Credits
Video + Editing: Emma Nickoloff
Video + Photography + Artist Interpretation: Elyse Miyake
Biography: Maliya Redditt
Uploaded by: Elyse Miyake
Bibliography
https://wp.wwu.edu/wwuart109/category/southcampus1/otterness/
http://www.tomostudio.com/about
http://www.tomostudio.com/attachment/en/54077dc24aa62c276f6eea8c/News/54d277aca1c1384c29a87ef1
http://www.tomostudio.com/attachment/en/54077dc24aa62c276f6eea8c/News/543fdc01addb50e627add329
http://www.tomostudio.com/bibliography/in-conversation-with-the-sculptor-tom-otterness
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