This is the third in a series of segments focused on the public art collection at Texas Tech, the artists who contributed, the university themes reflected in the art and specific pieces located around the Texas Tech University System.
Often called the beasts of finance, a bear and a bull are perched just outside the entrance to Texas Tech University's Rawls College of Business Administration, representing the down-trending bear markets and climbing bull markets, so-called for the downward swipes of a paw and upward thrusts of a horn in a confrontation.
Sculptors Tara Conley of Houston and Joe Barrington of Throckmorton created the piece called 'We are in the Business of Changing the World' together in 2013, creating a fabricated bronze bear and stainless steel bull connected by steel tubes depicting the ups and downs of the stock market as seen in a graph. The sculptures are circled by symbols of Lubbock's regional commodities - goods like cotton, corn and oil.
Conley said the installation was intended as more of an experience than a static sculpture, hence the location welcoming people into the building.
"When we had the opportunity to do the piece in the courtyard, we didn’t want it to be a thing, we wanted it to be an experience," she said. "So from the outer circle, where you start to see the phrases that relate to business and working together, and you know, business’ sort of role in the world, those phrases are taken from my list and those are in limestone going around the outside."
When the call for artists was sent out in 2012, Conley said, the design that she and Barrington had originally submitted was meant to be a two-part installation that included neither bull nor bear, rather than an entryway. But after deliberation with Texas Tech officials, the piece was redesigned as the current gateway including the traditional finance symbols.
"And then of course, the bull and the bear representing the markets, and then the steel pipes – that idea is about the market and the way the trends are," Conley said. "But it was important that we make it sort of a gateway, and at the same time, you want to represent both markets, but you don’t want it to be like there’s sort of a good market and a bad market. But we didn’t want it to look too much like ‘oh this is a bad market,’ – that’s not the kind of energy that we wanted."
Balancing the wishes laid out by the Tech public art committee - that the piece relate to Wall Street, markets and the economy, as taught by Rawls faculty – along with the styles of each of their respective previous works was a priority in making the piece, according to Barrington.
"We wanted to do some of the things Texas Tech laid out in their wish list for the piece – you know, which was about the local economy and local business, or area business, but we also wanted to remain true to our work that we did ourselves," Barrington said.
Conley has collected phrases and words that are often incorporated into her work, and Barrington has made a name for himself sculpting animals like Texas' famed longhorn steers.
The materials used in the sculpture and base of the piece were as carefully considered as the symbols, said Conley, who provided the business-related phrases that circle the base. Barrington said limestone native to West Texas was poured for the base and bronze and stainless steel were selected for their sculptural longevity.
"The tubes are made out of stainless steel, the bear is made out of fabricated bronze (so it started as flat sheets) and then those were fabricated to look like the bear, and then the bull is [made] out of fabricated stainless steel sheets," Barrington said. "And then the limestone, we just used it for the native bases because it’s a native rock to the area."
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The colors, textures and weathering provided by stainless steel and bronze were a nod to each of the markets' tendencies as much as the animals were, Conley said.
"A bull market is strong, so it made sense to use the stainless for the bull; the bear is necessary, but we didn’t want it to be steel and have it rust, we wanted it to be bronze – it can age," Conley said. "The bear market - it['s] going to happen, but it’s more human. The bull market is more of the engine of the market, a little more of the less human side."
Public art is especially appealing to both artists - Conley has created sculptures for the Houston Police Department Station, and Barrington was also commissioned for metalwork that adorns the doors of the recently built Kent Hance Chapel on campus.
Conley got her start in public art after realizing the sensory and emotional experience it can provide after people began climbing on her art - a large statue - as she was installing it at an exhibit in New Orleans.
"Art in galleries is wonderful, and I sell my work in galleries, and art in collections. Being in people’s private homes is great, and even in museums," Conley explained. "But public art - people interact with it. Sometimes it’s something they notice. Sometimes it’s something they don’t even really notice, it’s just something they walk by. But day after day, time after time, maybe they have a conversation there – and they remember that years later, having that conversation with that person right by that piece of art. Or, over time, you sort of develop a relationship with the objects around you and your environment."
Site-specific pieces of public art are common at Texas Tech, thanks to commissions secured by public art manager Emily Wilkinson and the Texas Tech University System's public art committee, which oversees the addition of public art to campuses in Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa and El Paso.
Wilkinson said 'We are in the Business of Changing the World' was the largest commission by the university, and also a part of the burgeoning Percent of Art Program transforming the Tech campus, building by building.
Public art on the Tech campus is usually directly connected to the purpose of the space it's installed in - like the bronze bulls lounging outside the Animal and Food Sciences Building or the stainless steel globe at the entry of the International Cultural Center.
"Some think it’s pretty literal, and others think it’s still pretty abstract. I think it kind of depends on how you view art and the economy and those sorts of things, how you feel about the sculpture’s representation. We like for it to in some way tie into the building, and sometimes that is a little more literal and sometimes a more obvious connection, and other times it’s something that may just get you thinking."
Conley said the link between art - like Tech's collection - and the education it enhances and provides, has been a longstanding theme.
"If you go back to Roman times or something, art and education are incredibly linked. And it does stimulate your mind, along with your heart, for that matter."
