Jiaxin Li

English 150

Section TH

03/23/16

“Ripple”

“Ripple” —— a sculpture made by Ann Gardner, what people immediately think about when

they hear about this word? California? Beach? Or Pacific Ocean? The real answer is the

sculpture which located at Troxel Hall in Iowa State university, and the interesting thing is the

‘Ripple’ is hang in the air.

This sculpture is made by Ann Gardner in 2013 28th August. Ann Gardner is a very fantastic

artist and the most her art is in the building. She has gotten lots of commissions to make

sculpture in plenty of buildings. There are many art products on her own website which visitors

are able to see which art style she makes. We can see that her sculpture is more twisted type. We

can directly see that in the “Ripple”. She had gotten so many awards in the past twenty-two

years, maybe that is why people can see her products all over America such as California and

Chicago.

As we know, there are plenty of sculptures in Iowa state university, “Ripple” is one of them.

Troxel Hall is the habitat of the “Ripple”. Most Iowa state’s students first heard about the Troxel,

and they can imagine it that is the building about the Toxi? Of course not. Toxel Hall is the

model type building in the campus, probably it was made not far away from now. The special

point in this building is the French windows, as a result, it makes the building seems more clear

and more modern. It is not like the traditional one which has red wall and church-style ceiling

like Curtiss Hall. The size looks really small from the outside, because the building is just one-

floor high. Most people are tracked from its appearance, because, Almost the biggest lecture

theater is in this building and it is entirely under the ground. Actually this is the only classroom

in the building, but it is enough to say it is not a small building. Also the main feature of this

building is the place for individual study. Because of the French Windows, there is enough

sunshine in that place and also lots of comfortable chars and sofa are provided to use.

So, let’s come back to the protagonist, “Ripple”. It is on the ceiling of the sunshine area.

Although, it is in the most crowed place in the Troxel Hall, but not too many people know the

existing of the “Ripple”. Why? Because it is hold on the ceiling. And students are busy to

transfer from one building to another, it is really reasonable to ignore the objects around them,

even the place they will go every single day. Most people do not know there is a sculpture in the

Troxel Hall. The first time they heard the “Ripple” in this building, probably they will think out

the ceiling of the lecture theater. By the way, that ceiling looks really like a ripple, and it confuse

me when I first come in this building. Following picture is the how “Ripple” looks like.

It looks like it is disorderly and unsystematic to twist together. It is not that easy to understand

what the artists wants to tell us. Maybe that is the area which artist wants people to imagine by

themselves.

The first thing let people to get interested is the shape – circle. The circle means peaceful and

transmigration or even samsara. It is reasonable to use it in this sculpture. The whole ring means

life and the different colors mean different types of situation in the life. If a person’s life is very

low, it cannot be keep going in the whole life. This situation must be changed by some reason.

This sculpture could seem apparently showing that. Something starts and changes to be another

and return it again.

Second is the color. It is very clear that there are three different colors in the sculpture – red, blue

and yellow. Normally, artist would like to use red, blue and green, because they are the three-

primary colors. Every colors come from those three, no one can exclude. But in the “Ripple”, it

changes to be yellow. Yellow is the mixture of red and green, and it is also the member of

subtractive three primaries and it is also a very important color which used in psychology. It

stands for hopeful and active. Maybe it is in the ceiling of study area, and yellow color could

make students be more active to their boring homework or project. Also yellow is purple’s

complementary colors, it could also be used in sunshine area. As we know, there is ultraviolet

ray in the sunshine and it is in the purple spectrum. When the sunshine exposure the “Ripple”, it

will look more fantastic. Another interesting point about the color is which color represent. Red

could represent Love, happiness, or Hot; Yellow could represent lively, agile and cheerful; Blue

could represent quiet, beautiful and cozily. “Ripple” could be a ring of angel.

Third is the material it used. It is possible for us to see the detail of the sculpture by the following

picture.

“Ripple” was made by plenty of small colorful glasses. And in the cross part, Ann used gradual

change to make ring to looks changing with no sense of strange. By watching this, some people

may realize that if they want to change their life, it should be step by step not directly or

immediately. That may be one of the statement that artist wants to tell us.