Ceremony dedicates evocative sculpture in the HSSC outdoor plaza
Dec. 2, 2019 — Steel, bronze, a 100-year old W.B. Yeats poem, the 1977 swim team, and a touching tribute combine to provide quite the backdrop for the newest piece of outdoor art on the Grinnell College campus.
Broken English is a 20-foot diameter broken circle, made up of welded stainless-steel rods and sand-cast bronze letters with patina. When read vertically, the letters around the circumference repeat the first few lines of Yeats’ 1919 poem The Second Coming.
The sculpture – which sits in the Humanities and Social Studies Center (HSSC) plaza – was created by Gregory Gómez ’80.
“I see Broken English as its own statement, making use of Yates’ poem but not meant to illustrate it,” Gómez said during a Nov. 9 ceremony dedicating the sculpture. “I hope the sculpture stands alone, bold and unified, a committed expression like The Second Coming, open to interpretation.”
The artwork was made possible by a gift from John Chambers ’77 in memory of his late wife, Jean Marie Chambers.
Former Grinnell College swimming teammates, Gregory Gómez ‘80, left, and John Chambers ’77 share a handshake in front of the new sculpture.
A Brooklyn native, Jean graduated with an associate degree in fashion illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology and later with a bachelor’s in English literature from Hunter College. She worked for 20 years for several trade magazines as an art editor, including Personal Computing, Medical World News, and Physics Today and later was a graphic designer for the New York Times.
“She would have been particularly pleased to have a signal piece of 20th century English poetry embodied in a magnificent sculpture dedicated to her memory,” John Chambers said. “Jean was keenly interested in art in New York City and during our travels. We spent much time in museums and art libraries. Her work as a publication designer benefited from these studies in her attention to detail, sense of composition, and eye for the beautiful. She would have liked Broken English very much.”
The dedication ceremony, which was held during the College’s Multicultural Alumni Weekend, included speeches and a reception. Lesley Wright, director of the Grinnell College Museum of Art, said Gómez first approached her about creating a piece for campus during a 2016 visit.
“I was impressed with Gregory’s past work and intrigued by the possibility to grace our campus as part of the HSSC,” she said. “Over the next two years, we had many conversations about what the piece might look like, where it might go, and how it would interact with the environment around it. Everything on the sculpture is handmade and every step of the process Gregory has been collaborative, resilient, and creative. We hope Broken English is the start of a new period of great public art at Grinnell.”
Gómez teaches sculpture and drawing at Boston University. Among his other public works are Homage to Ramon y Cajal, a three-dimensional neuron honoring the father of neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, and a sculpture that celebrates Chicago Cubs history and scorekeeping, The Encrypted Inning, at the Addison Elevated Train Station near Wrigley Field.
Hai-Dang Phan ’03, left, John Chambers ’77, Gregory Gómez ’80, Lesley Wright, Raynard S. Kington, and Bobbie McKibbin spoke during a ceremony to dedicate the Broken English sculpture.
“Gregory’s art career is a testament to the flexibility and creativity we like to foster at Grinnell,” Grinnell President Raynard S. Kington said. “He was trained as a printmaker and artist, and I feel fortunate to have one of his paper pieces from the College collection hanging in the president’s home. At Boston University, he inspires his students to connect their art to the world around them.
“This piece in this plaza brings the classroom outside the building,” Kington added. “It speaks to words that connect us and ways that language can break and disrupt what we are trying to say. Although Gregory selected this text a few years ago, its words have become perhaps even more powerful today.”
Gómez first read Yeats’ poem in a classroom at Alumni Recitation Hall (ARH). The HSSC will be completely finished in 2020 when renovation is completed on ARH and Carnegie Hall, which will be integrated into the new portions of the building that opened in January.
Yeats’ poem feared the anarchy that accompanied the end of World War I. The most famous line from the poem may be “things fall apart; the center cannot hold.”
“Politically and socially, the poem registered shocks and aftershocks of an age defined by ruptures,” said Hai-Dang Phan ’03, associate professor of English. “In 2019, we too feel the ground beneath us shaking.”
Phan says he is thrilled a poem will greet him and everyone else that walks in and out of the HSSC.
“Gregory’s sculpture turns W.B. Yeats winding lines into a 3-dimension concrete poem, and asks us to perform acts of extreme attention,” Phan said. “The sculpture quite literary stops us in our tracks, invites us in, and asks us to notice letters turning into strong words, words turning into foiled lines, and lines turning and turning into the figure the poem makes.”
The friendship between sculpture and donor dates back to 1977. Chambers was captain of the varsity swim team when Gómez joined the squad as a first-year student. They have many mutual friends and have stayed in touch over the years.
“Gregory has created a masterpiece, and like all masterpieces, it looks effortless,” Chambers said. “I cannot adequately express my gratitude.”
—by Jeremy Shapiro
For your information:
A website about Broken English designed by Rick Johnson ’20 contains further information about the sculpture, artist, and donor.
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