WP-3 Precursory Assignment 2

When first viewing the sculpture "Arch Falls", which was created by Bryan Hunt (circa 1980-81), the audience's attention is immediately captivated by the rather large gap located halfway down the front of the object.  This forces the audience to place themselves in the shoes of the sculptor and wonder, just what exactly lies beyond the rushing falls.  The piece as a whole is a rather abstract interpretation of a waterfall, yet by both title and the overall shape of the object we know immediately just what exactly it represents.  The intriguing nature of the void and the simplistic rendering of the falls offers an appeal to the audience's logos but not in the traditional sense.  This sort of higher thinking requires the audience to use deductive reasoning and rationalize the meaning and the argument that the piece creates.  Pablo Picasso once said, "I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else."  Art's purpose is for its viewers to think beyond the object in front of them and to question how certain works make them feel.  The question now is, what does "Arch Falls" make us think about and feel?

The background information on "Arch Falls" may be hard to come by but it is indeed rather interesting.  The piece was actually one of the ones that had been removed from the Sculpture Garden on the east side of Sheldon Art Gallery after being originally installed during the museum's renovations.  The Sheldon Art Gallery's pamphlet concerning the Sculpture Garden itself had this to say of "Arch Falls":  "Hunt is known for “gestural” bronze sculptures, notably waterfalls that convey the ephemeral effects of rippling, fluid surfaces in solid bronze."  The bronze medium gives the piece a professional feel which appeals to the audience's pathos.  At the same time, the sculpture is clearly made by hand, as indicated by the impressions left after the piece's conception, and once again renders itself to the abstract value of the work as a whole.  This creates an interesting paradox in which the art dances the fine line of being both credible visually and yet abstract in nature.  The sculpture is by no means a realist's work, but requires the audience to draw from their personal experience to imagine if these cascading falls where real and they could view them as simply as they do this bronze representation.  The fact that the sculpture is hand made should also further appeal to the audience's pathos because that sort artistic choice calls for the audience to pay particular attention to the emotion of the piece and specifically how they view it.  The bronze tint and textures give the art a mysterious tone.


This being our third writing assignment, I feel both prepared yet interested as to how everything will shake out without doing rhetorical analysis of the work.  Writing this letter will strengthen my analytical and rhetorical skills, but also my writing abilities as a whole.  Overall, Hunt's "Arch Falls" is an abstract representation that appeals to it's audience's pathos through the hand-made value and bronze medium which argues that what lies beyond and in the future should be our ultimate goal.  Well that's my opinion at least, speaking in a rhetorical sense.