Concordia by DeWitt Godfrey

My work emphasizes the relational existence of forms to contexts of materials, process, place, and collaboration in the public realm. The sculptures have an active role in their own making, the cylindrical elements form a community of similar yet distinct, dependent individuals- an aesthetic, structural and material ecosystem. The strength and physical integrity of these structures depends on the capacity to absorb and distribute stresses throughout the network of components that make up the whole. As narratives of their own existence, the sculptures construct their meanings through a process of making, materials and negotiation with place that determine their forms.

In this case, the Downtown Art Center—itself a negotiation between two formerly distinct structures—forms a plinth for the proposed sculpture, nestled into the corner formed by the roof and the wall. Much in the same way that the Art Center augments, strengthens and shoulders the large community, the form of the sculpture references the buttress, an external support meant to shore up, reinforce and sustain the structure it leans against; both necessary and dependent on each other, in a communal relationship.

National Endowment for the Arts
Wilhite LTD
Poage Engineers
Frost Brown Todd LLC
Ben C. Kaufmann Agency
DMD Data Systems
Lexington Fayette Urban County Government
Becky Reinhold
Ronaldo Foresti
Bill & Carrie Barr
Downtown Lexington Corporation Foundation
Todd Cote
Kathy Jones
David Tracy
Laura D’Angelo
Van Meter Pettit
Brian Miller
James Frazier
Gina Greathouse
James Clark
Kathryn Minton
Juilee Decker
Gloria Rie
Pink Spider
Georgia Henkel
Ann Nash
Robin Waller
Ellen Fernandez
Maggie Mick
Karen Gillenwater

Concordia Press Release 6/26/12