Adams Residents Create AIDS Awareness Sculpture

The exhibition of the sculpture "Inside-Outside: Steel Lining" opened yesterday at the Fogg Museum. The sculpture, which Adams House Artist-in Residence Janet Echelman, along with students in Adams House, designed for International AIDS Awareness Week, is on display until Dec. 5.

Resembling a ghostly tornado, the 36-foot-long sculpture is suspended from the glass ceiling of the courtyard in the Fogg. Echelman used knitted stainless steel, velvet and nylon nets to create the sculpture.

According to Echelman, the sculpture is meant to suggest human fragility and vulnerability. She compared the sculpture to clouds because of the ethereal nature of the material.

"However," she said, "these clouds don't have silver linings."

The inside of the sculpture is made of knitted stainless steel and viewers are invited to stick their heads inside the piece to fully experience the art.

"The sculpture allows a viewer to see what is normally private, inside," Echelman said. "It brings the viewer into direct physical contact with the sculpture."

Echelman said she wants viewers to understand the sculpture for themselves but offered different, seemingly conflicting interpretations. She compared the inside view to being inside a trap or a courtyard. "It's like a haven. You can go inside of it," Echelman said.

Some of the Adams student artists had different interpretations.

"I thought it looked like a big condom," Lucas A. Layton '01 said.

James A. Johnson '01 compared the viewer's first impression of the immensity of the sculpture to the AIDS epidemic. He said the porous nature of the material used in the sculpture is similar to the possibility that the AIDS virus is vulnerable and can be defeated.

"It represents the turmoil, the fear, the anger over the epidemic," he said.

Despite its airy appearance, "Inside-Outside" was created with the serious intent of promoting AIDS awareness.

Personal experience inspired Echelman to make the sculpture. After working with HIV-positive mothers and chil-

Personal experience inspired Echelman to makethe sculpture. After working with HIV-positivemothers and children, she wanted to becomeinvolved in the fight against AIDS. She said theexperience made her more fully aware of the impactof AIDS on the community.

Echelman said the velvet red ribbon that runsthe complete length of the sculpture is areference to our culture's way of acknowledgingthe societal trauma of the AIDS virus.

"The red ribbon gave it a lot of flavor,"Layton said.

Adams House students Jessamyn A. S. Conrad '00,Sarah M. Hulsey '01, Susannah L. Hollister '01,Nilizandre Elizabeth M. Gilbert '99, Meeghan H.Piemonte '99, Layton and Johnson assisted Echelmanin the creation of the sculpture.

Echelman described the students as very helpfulto the creative process and said they wereinvolved at every level.

"Collaboration with the students was veryimportant," she said.

The students who worked on the sculpture saidthey were excited about the exhibit and pleased bytheir collaboration with Echelman.

"She likes to involve the students in herartwork," Johnson said.

Echelman started building sculptures similar to"Inside-Outside" a few years ago while on aFulbright Senior Lectureship in India. Shedescribed the tour as the turning point in hercareer as an artist.

"The previously solid sculpture became thesealighted, diaphanous, netted, hollow forms,"Echelman said. "I wake up after dreams and I havethe shapes [of the sculptures] in my mind."

The sculpture is part of the Adams House StudioArt Program and was sponsored by the HarvardUniversity Art Museums, the Harvard-RadcliffeOffice for the Arts and Adams House.Mathew P. MillerCrimsonINTERACTIVE SCULPTURE: JANET ECHELMANstands at the foot of "Inside-Outside," which ison display at the Fogg Museum.

Personal experience inspired Echelman to makethe sculpture. After working with HIV-positivemothers and children, she wanted to becomeinvolved in the fight against AIDS. She said theexperience made her more fully aware of the impactof AIDS on the community.

Echelman said the velvet red ribbon that runsthe complete length of the sculpture is areference to our culture's way of acknowledgingthe societal trauma of the AIDS virus.

"The red ribbon gave it a lot of flavor,"Layton said.

Adams House students Jessamyn A. S. Conrad '00,Sarah M. Hulsey '01, Susannah L. Hollister '01,Nilizandre Elizabeth M. Gilbert '99, Meeghan H.Piemonte '99, Layton and Johnson assisted Echelmanin the creation of the sculpture.

Echelman described the students as very helpfulto the creative process and said they wereinvolved at every level.

"Collaboration with the students was veryimportant," she said.

The students who worked on the sculpture saidthey were excited about the exhibit and pleased bytheir collaboration with Echelman.

"She likes to involve the students in herartwork," Johnson said.

Echelman started building sculptures similar to"Inside-Outside" a few years ago while on aFulbright Senior Lectureship in India. Shedescribed the tour as the turning point in hercareer as an artist.

"The previously solid sculpture became thesealighted, diaphanous, netted, hollow forms,"Echelman said. "I wake up after dreams and I havethe shapes [of the sculptures] in my mind."

The sculpture is part of the Adams House StudioArt Program and was sponsored by the HarvardUniversity Art Museums, the Harvard-RadcliffeOffice for the Arts and Adams House.Mathew P. MillerCrimsonINTERACTIVE SCULPTURE: JANET ECHELMANstands at the foot of "Inside-Outside," which ison display at the Fogg Museum.