High art

Wednesday, Oct. 3 — At this year’s ArtPrize event in Grand Rapids, there are 1,517 entries spread out across 161 venues. Seems like too much art to fit in one place, right? At least that’s what one Lansing-based artist contestant thought, so he looked in a new direction to stand out.

“My idea was to really try to surprise people,” said Henry Brimmer, a professor at Michigan State University. “It’s not like they see sculptures hanging from cable every day. It’s unpredictable.”

You read that right — his piece, aptly named “Gravity Matters Little,” is an 8-ft. tall human figure sculpture dangling 175 ft. above the intersection of Monroe Center and Ionia Avenue on an anchored cable connecting Select Bank and the Clear Channel building. Brimmer teaches design and photography through the advertising department in the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at MSU, and he said he enjoys the distinction his piece has earned.

“I really like when people look up and haven’t seen it and go, ‘Wow, look at that!’” he said. The installation cracked the top 25, but failed to make it to the final 10.

This is the fourth year for ArtPrize, an international art competition that brings out artists from seemingly every medium and transforms the entire downtown area of Grand Rapids into a giant contemporary art exhibit. Like Brimmer, Lansing resident Tom Sheerin also looked up for inspiration, but his recycled art piece is a little more grounded. He created a metallic eagle — freeze-framed in the middle of a lifelike swoop —using nothing but table flatware.

“I worked meticulously to make it as realistic a representation as I could using silverware,” Sheerin said. “I try to be clever about making things not look like what they are.”

This isn’t Sheerin’s first fork-and-knife raptor. At the 2009 Old Town Scrapfest, Sheerin said he collected a “mountain of silverware” to make his first bird in one week.

“At that time I thought it was really something,” he said, “But it’s nothing compared to this one.” This year’s piece, “Bird Feeder,” is positioned near Van Andel Arena and made it the top 100. Sheerin says the piece has about 3,000 pieces of silverware in it, “give or take a couple of hundred.” He worked on it for about a year and a half, which involved quite a bit of tedious prep work.

“I had to remove about 1,500 wooden or plastic handles,” he said. “And they were not meant to come off.”

Chris Vanwyck’s piece is much more down-to-earth. The MSU grad and vice president of creative strategy at Ciesa Design in Old Town took an ultra modernist take on an Adirondack chair when working on his piece, “Be Still.”

“I was told by about five different fabricators that there was no way I could bend the metal the way I wanted it,” Vanwyck said. “Thankfully, my friend Fred Hammond and I don’t believe in the word can’t.”

“Be Still” is installed at the Weston Open Space. Vanwyck, who is also an instructor of graphic design at MSU, said he was inspired by the Adirondack is a universal icon for

“It seems like I’m always running around and never taking the time to relax and pay attention to the things that really matter,” he said. “I went out of my way to develop a piece that people could not only look at but they could actually interact with by sitting on it, taking a moment to relax.”

And, you know, enjoy the view for a little while.

All Lansing-area ArtPrize entrants:  

Henry Brimmer
“Gravity Matters Little”
East Lansing
Top 25

Paul Nilsson
“The Penguin Project”
Williamston
Top 25

Craig Mitchell Smith
“Making a wish”
Okemos
Top 50

Jim Alfredson
“Dr. Funk”
Lansing

Scott Van Allsburg
“The Potato Project”
Williamston

Matt Assenmacher
“Seasons”
Lansing

Lisa Benck
“A Mile in Her Shoes”
Lansing

David Bogdan
“Plunge”
Brighton

Anne Carrigan
“Head Cold”
Lansing

Elahe Crockett
“Veiled Dreams”
Williamston

Amanda Cruickshank
“Porthole of Scottish Identity”
Lansing

Trish Turner Davis
“La Senora Fria”
Grande Ledge

Francois Dillinger, Ashley Worden
“Connected Consciousness”
East Lansing

Matthew Fromboluti
“Plastic Landscape”
Williamston

Richard-Gene Wolf
“Fine Art Photography”
Mason

Cristine V. Hampton
“Breaker Boys of the Harry E”
Okemos

Tony Hendrick
“Boy and His Dream”
Grand Ledge

Rama Hoskins
“Hope”
Lansing

lden Kelly
“Willow”
East Lansing

Faith Keresztes
“Enchanted Rain Forest Primates”
Lansing

Mosaic Mafia
“Untitled Mosaic”
Portland

Don Pixley
“Farewell Arthur K”
East Lansing

Cole Rees
“Detention”
East Lansing

Evan Rees
“Liberty’s Oppressor”
Lansing

Cindy Rosier
“Rosebud”
Portland

Becca Schlaff
“Trout Abstract”
East Lansing

Brian Snyder
“Fleur Jardin”
Lansing

Azlini Anuar Tan
“Where should I go”
Okemos

Pamela Timmons
“Be Boplisity”
Bath

Upper Peninsula Charts
“Upper Peninsula Charts”
Eaton Rapids

Tyler Vander Maas
“Intrepid Harmony”
Lansing

Chris VanWyck
“Be Still”
Lansing

Aila Vincent
“The Owl”
Mason

Diane Wolter
“The Candidates”
Williamston

Jason Weese
“The Poltergeist Portrait”
Charlotte

Brian Whitfield
“Crossing Over”
Lansing

Paul Wolber
“Cosmic Paradigm”
Lansing

Jim Wolnosky
“My Swinging Machines”
Bath