Pan Am Public Art: Art Across Borders Artist
Julie Elizabeth Silver
Project:
Cast in Time, 9 bronze figures and 36 pears in an
installation, 4 ft. high x 4 ft wide x 12-ft. diameter
Site 9:
Johnson Park on Elmwood Avenue.
Silver's work explores the themes of fertility and Earth as Universal
Mother. Curved like bellies, nine bronze forms in a circular formation
represent the gestation cycle, and allude "to the cycle of creation
and passage". Each mother figure carries the weight of pears which
represent yet another cycle, the harvest. Symbolically, the pears, or
fruit of our labor, have differing patinas to reference the broad scope
of cultural diversity in the area. Implanting the work in the earth depicts
growth as well as impressions women have made in history.
Julie Elizabth Silver studied at the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy and she received a B.F.A from Maryland Institute College of Art. She has participated in two International Cast Iron Art Symposiums in Latvia and Finland. She is currently the Director of the Casting Institute at the University at Buffalo.