A 13-foot tall and 10-foot wide sculpture depicting the head of a young Chinese girl was installed in the Meadows Museum Plaza on Sept. 28.
The sculpture, called “Sho,” is made of white-painted stainless steel openwork mesh. The 660-pound figure was hand-carried to the plaza in two sections from a truck parked behind the museum. Six art handlers spent three days assembling the two pieces with hundreds of rods and screws to create a seamless and invisible connection upon completion.
Internationally renowned Spanish artist Jaume Plensa created the sculpture in 2007. Plensa has established himself as a monumental sculptor incorporating film, light, letters and other unusual materials to present familiar objects in an interpretation of familiar objects, such as the human body, in unfamiliar ways.
“Sho” depicts the head of a young Chinese girl whose father’s restaurant was located next to Plensa’s studio in Barcelona, according to a press release issued by the Meadows Museum. “Sho” has also been on exhibit in Spain and Chicago.
The exhibit “Face and Form: Modern and Contemporary Sculpture in the Meadows Collection” will open at the museum on Oct. 7. Exhibits will showcase the museum’s collection of sculptures from the 19th to 20th century, including work from Santiago Calatrava, Henry Moore and Giacometti. Sculptures will be placed outdoors in the plaza and indoors in the Jake and Nancy Hamon Galleries.