Art Biz with Liz: North Campus Sculptures

Next week is already the last week of classes, and the following week is graduation! At this point, I don’t think I’m going to finish everything on my U-M/Ann Arbor bucket list, but I was able to check off another item this past week.

This past Thursday, my instructor for RCARTS 270 switched things up and had us meet on North Campus instead of our usual classroom/art studio. I was excited to learn that one of the many sculptures and art installations we were to see was “The Wave Field.” I don’t remember how I first learned about it, but I had heard of The Wave Field during my freshman or sophomore year at U-M. For those who aren’t familiar with it, The Wave Field is an earthen sculpture on North Campus. Designed and created by Maya Lin, it is one of three, the other two being in New York and Florida. Lin is well known for creating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC, so it was cool to see one of her works right here in Ann Arbor.

The ebb and flow of the waves create different shadows depending on the time of day. We visited The Wave Field during the sunniest part of the day, so I didn’t witness this as much. It was fun to run up and down the waves, however, and equally nice to simply relax against the small hills. Although not necessarily a momentous event or activity, visiting The Wave Field had been on my bucket list, and I was glad to be able to do. It’s slightly hidden away on the side of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Building, but I encourage anyone remotely interested to take a trip to North Campus and visit this piece (especially since the weather is warming up).

We were able to see many other sculptures and buildings on campus I had never seen or heard of. For many students on Central Campus, North Campus is a mystery. If you don’t have a class or other reason to go there, you might not visit often, so it was a delight to walk around and see different works of art. Philip N. Stewart’s rotating 3 Cubes in a 7 Axis Relationship was by far my favorite, but Alexander Liberman’s reddish orange Begob was also neat to see. Below are some highlights (all photos were taken by yours truly this past Tuesday).