Gerard Kirk Harris

“Winsome”, by Gerard Kirk Harris, resides in splendor at the entrance to our plaza this summer. The elements are tall and slender, with gentle curves and colors that provide a graceful interplay between them. “Winsome” invites moving around it, and watching as colors and forms appear, interplay, and disappear behind each other, providing variety in the theme.

Harris stumbled upon his interest in visual and conceptual relationships, and the balances between the elements within a sculpture and with its environment, while arranging sticks on the ground. “When I placed them in a rigid, geometric pattern, my eye focused on the pattern, but when I moved them into a disorderly arrangement, I noticed a leaf among them. This leaf had always been there, but the first geometric pattern had been so strong I had overlooked it. It was the disorder that allowed the environment to enter into the design.”

“Winsome uses design principles similar to those used by a composer composing a piece of classical music,” Harris elaborated. “A composer uses notes, phrases and themes, as building blocks for a composition.  These are varied, and placed in relationships with each other to create the overall composition.  “Winsome” contains two similar but varied sections (phrases) in a relationship that allows them to visually interplay with one another, thus composing a sculptural theme analogous to a musical theme. I am currently working on plans for a sculptural symphony, with four movements, using the symphonic form developed by Franz Joseph Hayden.”