Date: 1990

Dimensions: 12’ x 56’ x 185’ (Spans 21’h x 18”d x ¼ mile)

Materials: Bronze, Aluminum Tread Plate, Stainless Steel, Brick, Concrete, plants, Bermed Earth

Commissioned by: Northern Iowa University

Location: Ames, IA

A multi-faceted site-specific work dealing with the student life at Northern Iowa University. Public area including bronze statue, steel tread plate building and seating areas in which students can enjoy and ponder their choices of cuisine. The concept is a total site specific project including seating areas, landscaping, sculptures, and a brick path. I (with my crew, did all the site work, including laying the bricks). As students enter the courtyard, they walk through a bronze arch containing all kinds of cast and plate bronze food items, including healthy and questionable stuff. A big Iowa ham with eggs on top anchors one side, while a big salmon balances a variety of yummies on the other. All three meals served on plates are present as well. Lunch is overhead and upside-down giving viewers a slice of cantaloupe, chips and a slice of bread on top of which sits a can of SPAM with a question mark on top. Past the cornucopia of food, one encounters a stainless house structure in front of which is a cast bronze loaf of bread, knife and table cloth under which a food pyramid informs. The warm color and symbol of “breaking bread” is contrasted with the industrial nature of a house, which contradicts tradition and symbolizes the high tech and fast-food industry that most people utilize. One enters this palace to eat through a cut out figure opening, and can sit at a stainless steel table. The back of the house as a 15” space between it and the brick path, so one has to become aware of their body and the potential danger (pay attention to what you eat) if they exit that way. The path continues to the back of the site where wooden benches surround an old elm tree.