Scepter

Interpreting the Scepter

By:Miranda Cunningham & Kathryn Caskey

What is the Scepter?

Queen Elizabeth holding the Scepter

At first glance it’s hard to initially see the sculpture Scepter, located in Red Square on WWU’s campus, because of its rusty colors that blend into the bricks red and rusty colored bricks in it’s background. When you get a closer look, and view the sculpture from different angles, you are left with many interpretations such as a human figure, a sword, and an actual scepter. But the goal initial goal of the artist was to depict a elongated human figure and a sovereign emblem.

Who is Steve Tibbetts?

Scepter was created by Steve Tibbetts, an artist who attended Western Washington University in the 1960’s and entered the sculpture into a student contest on campus, and the sculpture was later gifted to the university.

Possible Influences of Scepter

In the 1960’s pop art and junk art was on the rise and is believed to have potentially influenced

Scepter interpreted as Excalibur

Tibbetts while creating Scepter. Tibbetts created the sculpture out of scraps from cars from the 1950’s. Junk art is defined as reusing waste, scrap metal, or anything else that’s “useless to society” and creating something with it. Pop art also became popular at the time to call attention to politics, pop culture, and consumerism. It also could be defined as taking a subject-matter and presenting it in a new way.
A few world events occurred in the 1960’s that could have possibly influenced Tibbetts work, such as the Vietnam war and the civil rights movements. The sculpture’s figure is long, but very top heavy. Standing as a tall strong human figure, It could be interpreted to show the strength we needed as nation, but also depicts the how secluded minorities and soldiers must have felt at the time as we were dealing with the war and the civil rights movement.
On a local and national scale, the environmental movement became prominent in this time frame as well. People began to become more aware of environmental issues and the push for recycling and reusing started. The Bellingham community began to adapt this idea and today many people in the area are very aware of environmental issues, and recycling. This idea of recycling in his community could have influenced him when he decided to use old car parts while building Scepter.

Works Cited

Art Inventories Catalog-Machinations in the Mode of Senility,

(sculpture), Smithsonian American Institution, 2016

PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/timeline/timeline_text.html.

“America Recycles Day 2016: A Brief History of Recycling.” Time, Time, time.com/4568234/history-origins-recycling/.

Tate. “Pop art – Art Term.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pop-art.

“React. Research. Execute!” React Research Execute, wp.wwu.edu/wwuart109/2017/02/17/scepter-1966-steve-tibbetts.

“What is Junk art?” Xamou art, www.xamou-art.com/word/junk-art/.