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Rockford Art Museum

Rockford Art Museum

Posted On: November 23, 2020

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The museum galleries may be closed for now, but did you know you can still see pieces from Rockford Art Museum’s permanent collection throughout the city? One example is “The Rockmen Guardians” created by Terese Agnew and installed on the banks of the Rock River in 1990. Here’s what Terese had to say about these impressive sculptures

"Four giant Rockmen Guardians appeared along the Rock River, seemingly to have emerged from the rocks of the river itself. These Guardian sculptures were inspired by a local tall tale that a group of explorers were canoeing down the Rock River when they came to a huge eddy of rocks, an impasse by boat, sometimes called a ford… thus, the discovery of Rockford. This mysterious stone Bulwark protecting the land beyond is the idea upon which these Guardian sculptures are based…

Throughout history, there have been many guardians to protect people and sacred places. In popular culture we find fantastic possessors of power which seem to be the progeny of our desire to be guarded. In some instances this might turn up in the guise of a lion, or possibly batman, but recently I looked up the word guardian and was referred to 'uniform, armor'. Under 'uniform, armor’, at some point you inevitably come across ‘knighthood', the beginning of the incredible techno-suit. If the card catalog were organized visually you find ‘astronaut', 'hockey guard' and 'Tin Man' in the same box. In this light, recent continuations of the protective suit such as Robocop or C3PO begin to look a lot like Lancelot, except now the high-tech magic has become the skin of these modern mythic characters. My interest with this visual syntax is that it is emblematic of our penchant for a more magical, pure breed of authority.

By sculpting in a material that has much to do with the character of this region, I have also begun to investigate our fascination with these ancient objects we call rocks, and their ironic transformation of historic guardians into popular culture. The rock being used is Red Granite, one of the two primary stones brought down by the glaciers, most commonly found as field stone. It is amazing to note the number of people who took the trouble to mark the passage to their home with two filed stone boulders. One of the most enjoyable things about working with this stone is that it possesses a timeless strength and power of its own."

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