John Acorn - Friday Flyers

aluminum
2002 Partnership: Hendrix Student Center
Location: Hendrix Student Center Lobby – 5 other sites on campus

Six 8 foot long aluminum “paper airplane” forms placed throughout the campus. With the happenstance of placement guiding the concept this work dovetails the curiosity and enthusiasm contained within childhood development with the individual pursuit of knowledge found within higher education. The airplane is an icon for the potential of what can be explored if curiosity and enthusiasm are maintained.

John Acorn was born in New Jersey in 1937. He received his BA from Montclair State College in New Jersey in 1959 and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 1961. He joined the faculty at Clemson University in 1961 as an assistant professor teaching sculpture. In 1969 he received a grant as a Fulbright Scholar in Creative Arts at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunst in West Berlin where he spent a year making his work. Since 1961 he has played a major role in establishing and developing support for the visual arts at Clemson University and in South Carolina. In 1998 he was awarded the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Award, South Carolina's most prestigious honor given to an individual artist for commitment to developing the arts within the state. In 1997 Acorn retired from Clemson University after thirty six years, twenty as the Department Chair for the Art Department. He is presently serving as a member of the University Advisory Board. John Acorn has dedicated his life to enriching the experience for every individual at Clemson University. To have this work on campus is yet another gift to us from John Acorn.

An Invitation Extended.

In recognition of Acorn's 36 years of service and teaching at Clemson University in the Department of Art, and for his major contributions to arts education in the state, the Art Partnership committee unanimously voted to invite him to be the sixth commissioned artist for the Art Partnership Program. The Art Partnership committee selected the Hendrix Student Center as a focal point for his project.

The Idea.

John Acorn project is a grouping of six - 8' folded paper airplane forms made out 1/2" plate aluminum placed around the Hendrix Center. After listening to student suggestions he responded to an idea to disperse the planes throughout campus thus extending the pieces relationship to the whole campus. The final project, titled Friday Flyers , would site six of the paper airplane forms around campus as though they were tossed from one site, the Hendrix Student Center and randomly landed throughout campus.

Happenstance As Metaphor.

The random placement of these six forms symbolizes the importance of diversity and chance, innovation and human perseverance. The release of a paper airplane and its subsequent course parallels academia in the function of sending out the seeds of an idea for others to discover and explore. Both actions require embracing curiosity, imagination, and courage. Both journeys are can be influenced by variables such as knowledge, history, and environment. Friday Flyers speaks to the relationship between these two seemly disparate experiences and celebrates a gesture of human exchange that is meaningful and significant. Friday Flyers points to the success of a shared idea. The work leaves the hands of John Acorn and functions to inspire those who are touched its potential.

Inspiration and Accessibility.

Choosing the folded paper airplane as his subject and increasing its scale Acorn creates a work that becomes a monument to a recognizable childhood form and an icon for a broad audience. The scale of the final work remains comparable in scale to the human body allowing the viewer an opportunity to bring his or her own unique experiences to the artwork.

A Celebration Of Curiosity.

Friday Flyers is powerful in its ability to craft a bridge between the playful and the serious. The work communicates a powerful connection between the simplicity of childhood curiosity and higher education in the pursuit of knowledge. Friday Flyers encourages the viewer to remember our original inquisitive nature or our desire to realize dreams. The work emphasizes the nexus between the process of human development and the vitality of human discovery.

A Marker For The Future.

Like many other commissioned public artworks across the nation, this piece will speak on behalf of the ideas embraced by a community. Friday Flyers will become an enduring symbol of excellence, creativity, individuality, and diversity. These planes will serve to express the passion contained within us all to design an object to exceed all others; to fly the farthest. Friday Flyers will invariably point to the future and to the spot within us all which drives us to push beyond any accepted standard. John Acorn's work addresses the potential within every individual and asks that we forge ahead with innovative ideas in addressing contemporary challenges.