Ralph Helmick & Stuart Schechter - NYC Department of Cultural Affairs

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Ralph Helmick & Stuart Schechter

Genius, Cast Bronze Cable, 2002

Genius

Completion Date:	2002

Medium:	Cast bronze, stainless steel, cable

Dimensions:	n/a

Location:	Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences

Address:	2001 Oriental Blvd., Brooklyn

Architect:	School Construction Authority

Sponsor Agency:	Board of Education

Design Agency:	School Construction Authority

Hanging within the main entrance of the new Leon Goldstein High School for the Sciences floats a sculptural meditation on the nature of profound discovery. The central image is a Great Horned Owl in flight, created by hundreds of precisely fixed and suspended cast bronze elements. The owl, emblematic of wisdom, is formed by a dense array of symbols culled from language and science. Like a comet, the form becomes visually more porous as it moves toward the tail, and eventually dissolves into a particulate array, a sort of 'contrail of rationality.'

Numerals, letters, and symbols in the owl form incorporate text, equations, and other kinds of embedded meaning. For example, a row of suspended numbers illustrating the decimal equivalent of Pi trails behind the sculpture. Elsewhere, the sculpture includes letters spelling out dozens of names-geniuses in their fields-drawn from a variety of cultures and historical epochs, and viewers examining the undersides of the wings will decipher a quote by Walt Whitman.

The subject matter is simultaneously: pastoral-depicting an elegant movement of avian activity; scientific-relating to the activities within the building; and philosophical-a meditation on the nature of esthetic and technological pursuits. Science infuses the sculpture, evoking interpretations relating to phase change (physics), the nature of perception (biology/physiology), and human experience (phenomenology).

About the Artist...
Ralph Helmick obtained a BA in American Studies from the University of Michigan, attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, and received an MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University, Medford, MA. Early in his career Helmick exhibited his work in numerous solo shows in Boston and New York, as well as in group exhibitions in museums throughout New England. Among his many awards is a National Endowment for the Arts / New England Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and several design honors for his public artwork. He has taught extensively - at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and as a visiting artist at numerous colleges and universities.

Stuart Schechter is a rocket scientist by training and artist by vocation. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Wayne State University (MI) and received a Master of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has worked on a variety of airborne and space programs at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and holds a handful of patents. After MIT, Schechter continued his long-standing interest in visual art through studies at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he took continuing education courses in drawing, painting and sculpture. In addition to his commissioned work, Schechter has also taught course on public art and served on panels discussing the impact of technology on the creative process.

Helmick and Schechter have been collaborating since 1994. A shared interest in the mechanics of visual perception, especially the consolidating properties of human vision, led the artists to their overarching concept for their first collaboration, Ghostwriter, an interior suspended sculpture for the Evanston, IL, Public Library. Their sculpture for the Melvin Price Federal Courthouse in East St. Louis, IL, Jurisprudents, won a GSA National Design Award in 2001.