While touring UCSD for the first time a few years ago, I couldn’t help but notice the five big stone blocks sitting out in the middle of Marshall field. Confused but intrigued, I asked the equally clueless tour guide what the blocks were supposed to be.
“”Some artist, a guy named Stuart or something, makes these weird sculptures all over campus,”” he said. “”I think the blocks are supposed to represent haystacks.””
Trying to salvage his tour guide image, he quickly turned our attention to something he had real knowledge of: those cool “”Andre the Giant Has a Posse”” stickers.
As is the case with much of the Stuart Collection at UCSD, Ian Hamilton Finlay’s “”UNDA”” — or, “”Big Ugly Haystacks,”” as I like to call them — is underappreciated and misunderstood.
None of the sculptures is produced by a guy named Stuart. The collection is named after the Stuart Foundation, which sponsors the artists.
Despite a bad first impression, I have grown to enjoy the Stuart Collection. I think more students would share this feeling if they took more time to understand the creative expression of the artists who have worked on these outdoor sculptures.
Upon closer examination, “”UNDA”” reveals a much more subtle appeal for those who need more than stone haystacks to be intellectually stimulated. Hopefully, that’s you, UCSD students with your average S.A.T. score of 1259.
Each block contains the letters U, N, D and A, but arranged in different order. An s-shaped symbol is placed between letters, which is a proofreader’s mark that means “”transpose these letters.”” Once all the transposing — fancy talk for “”discombobulating”” — is through, each block spells the word UNDA.
After I learned this, it seemed to me that there was more to the Stuart Collection than big ugly haystacks that weren’t really haystacks at all. Some of these sculptures might even be cool, I thought.
Another piece that initially baffled me as a new UCSD student was the big blue fence in the forest between Peterson Hall and the Price Center. It looked really weird, but apparently it isn’t just any old blue fence, it’s “”Two Running Violet V Forms”” by Robert Irwin.
Indeed, there is more to it than it appears at first.
The sculpture consists of two perfectly geometrical “”V”” shapes conforming to the pattern of the trees, revealing that this is a man-made forest planted in rows, but the way the light shimmers blue and violet on the fence speaks to the gloriously random and uncontainable growth and movement of tree branches.
Like Terry Allen’s metal-encased “”Trees,”” one of which is fitted with a loudspeaker that allows it to talk, Irwin’s piece is an eloquent portrayal of the union between nature and civilization that exists everywhere at UCSD.
It’s a far cry from the “”Giraffe Catcher”” label that some students have slapped onto the piece. Maybe “”Big Blue Fence”” was a little hasty as well.
There are too many students, especially incoming freshmen, who are unaware of what the Stuart Collection is. No wonder many people seem to be confused by the presence of stone haystacks and talking metal trees.
Some of the most common sights at UCSD are a part of the storied Stuart Collection: the snake path going to Geisel Library, the neon lights in Warren College displaying the seven vices and virtues, and, of course, the Sun God. It’s hard to go anywhere on campus without being immersed in something weird and creative.
Stuart Collection aside, art at UCSD in general seems to be really quirky and interesting, and always worth more than just one look.
Turn on Channel 18 (UCSD-TV) and you can see ballet dancers performing dexterously to The Prodigy’s “”Smack My Bitch Up.”” Go to a free “”New Music Forum”” and you can see someone playing the radio as a musical instrument.
So next time you see something out-of-the-ordinary on campus such as a giant red shoe or a big ugly haystack, take some time to think and absorb what you see. You may find something really special that will enrich your UCSD lifestyle. Then again, you also might find yourself in front of the Sun God wondering what the heck the university was thinking. I guess not everything can be understood.
Visit http://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu for enlightening information on the collection. I admit that those brilliant interpretations of the sculptures came from the Web site, not my own mind. And you thought I was all cool, didn’t you?
My editor recently informed me that “”unda”” is Latin for “”wave”” — so Finlay transposed the word “”wave”” in a wave-like manner. My head hurts from all the appreciating.
