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News & ArtsWednesday, March 17, 2010
At Large The Mysteries of DePauw University
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 5:02 AM
What are these things? They're freaking me out.
I've asked a half a dozen people what this is about—why are these flyers everywhere? who the heck is John?—but no one knows.
According to the plaque, this staircase near the library was donated to the university by the class of 1924 in 1924. I find that hard to believe.
The entire student body—2400 souls—is terrified of these two.
P.S. DePauw is Dan Quayle's alma matar.
1
Private college, right? Students' families probably had lots of $$ in the '20s: not being saddled with college debt, it was no big deal to hit up Mum & Pater for a bit more for a new stairs. Just speculating, Dan--I really have no idea. The handrails are obviously much newer. As for those portraits: they scare ME--even on The SLOG! And those grass hut thingies--cool!
2
P.S. As for the "John" pics, maybe he's running for something. They're probably getting ready to elect next year's student body officers about now.
5
Hey, I went to DePauw University! But I have no idea what those art things are or who John is. Those pictures look like they're from East College, the oldest building on campus.
6
The John thing is probably evangelism. At my grad school one year, all of a sudden, "Do you agree with RB?" appeared all over campus. People talked about it, wondered about it. After about two weeks, there was an event explaining that RB was an Indian guy, raised Hindu, who'd converted to Christianity. They even gave out t-shirts: "I agree with RB!"
8
The sculptures were created by Patrick Dougherty with the help of the student body. He scavenged local materials. He drilled holes in the ground and planted tall branches into them to create the "skeleton" of the sculptures, and then he wove everything together, sometimes on scaffolds. It won't last forever, but it's a nice piece of art that is expected to change naturally over time. http://www.stickwork.net/
9
You are confusing the current instatiation of the staircase, clearly recent, with the antiquitous ontological staircase ur-concept (call it {#}). A previous instance of {#} may well have been donated by Class of '24 in '24. And an unbroken chain of instantiations of {#}, co-located without replacement of sponsorship would allow this new staircase to remain ontologically fixed, and there for continue to 'be', in some sense, the original.
Hense, donated by '24, in '24.
Or something.
Hense, donated by '24, in '24.
Or something.
12
We have the same things on our campus here in Wyoming. They are sculptures by an artist named Patrick Dougherty. He is pretty cheap, but he does stuff that people think will look good in a brochure, so he is on a lot of campuses.
15
@11 - that's what I was thinking - only wording it differently. They freak Dan out because they are vaginal-looking. He obviously likes the phallic stuff much better.
16
@ 9,10,14: "George Washington used this ax! It's the same ax! It's had three new handles, and two new heads, but it's the same ax!"
18
I agree with @6. He was "Joe" at Kansas State University. There were signs all over campus that said something similar about Joe. A week or so before the big event, they started giving more details using sidewalk chalk. Hundreds of people went, including myself, out of curiosity. "Joe" explained how Jesus came into his life and then told that hackneyed story about the draw bridge operator who sacrifices his son in the cogs to save the people on the train. He then asked everyone who wanted to be saved to raise their hands and like 10 of 1000 raised their hands.
21
Huts: seen similar stuff on other college campuses. It's public art, plus in all likelihood a place for drunk student couples to screw at night.
John: He might have just wanted to say hi. I spent an entire day in college walking backwards for no reason. You do shit like that when you're in college.
Staircase: I've seen much more lavish class gifts than that at some campuses, especially when the classes are from that time period.
Portraits: Holy fuck those are creepy.
John: He might have just wanted to say hi. I spent an entire day in college walking backwards for no reason. You do shit like that when you're in college.
Staircase: I've seen much more lavish class gifts than that at some campuses, especially when the classes are from that time period.
Portraits: Holy fuck those are creepy.
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