Mount Sculpture Web
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Flossmoor acquires sculpture for Ballantrae Park

Mount Sculpture Web
Sculptor Terry Karpowicz will help H-F Park District
decide where to place his 8-foot piece “Mount”
in Flossmoor as part of the village’s three-year
rotational sculpture program.
(Provided photo)

Another sculpture has been approved to enhance the artistic appeal in Flossmoor.

The Flossmoor Village Board voted Monday to add “Mount” by artist Terry Karpowicz to the village’s three-year rotational sculpture program.

The roughly 8-foot-tall sculpture will be installed in Ballantrae Park. The exact location and installation date are to be determined in collaboration with Karpowicz and the Homewood-Flossmoor Park District.

Karpowicz will be responsible for transporting and installing the piece, and the village will pay him an honorarium of $3,000 to display it for three years.

In an email to the H-F Chronicle, Karpowicz said that he feels “Mount” speaks to “tension, pride and power.”

“The title infers different ways to look at the sculpture,” he said. “First, it can be seen as the peak of a mountain that we all want to ascend; then there is the notion that this stone can be a delicate jewel that is positioned atop a piece of jewelry (the steel base).”

He added that the stone is a granite slab that incorporates pieces of mica, schist and some crystals.

Nancy Burrows, chairwoman of the Flossmoor Art Commission, explained the commission’s selection of this piece, including Karpowicz’s history in Flossmoor.
 
“One of his pieces was one of the original pieces in the (Flossmoor Public) Art Program,” she said. “He has stayed in touch with us; we’ve called on him as a resource over the years.”
 
Karpowicz’s sculpture “On the Edge of Awakening” was a founding piece of the village’s permanent sculpture collection, and he has advised the commission on sculpture maintenance issues. 
 
While attending the sculpture graduate program at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Karpowicz was awarded a Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship to the United Kingdom where he served as a scholar to the Wind and Watermill Section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, Burrows said.
 
“He was there to study the technical and mechanical aspects of the country’s medieval wind and water mills, and that led to his passion,” she said.
 
Burrows said “Mount” combines irregular organic materials such as wood, granite and steel and is defined by “tension and point of contact.”
 
“There’s a kinetic feel in the relationship of these elements,” she said. “We think that this will really add some interesting things to our sculpture program.”
 
Mayor Paul Braun said he is happy with the location planned for this sculpture because the Ballantrae Park area has not had any previous involvement in the rotational art program.
 
“I’m pleased the commission has taken the board’s consideration to expand our pieces into other areas of the community that have not traditionally had art,” Braun said. “I’m really pleased to have this in the Ballantrae area.”
 

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