'Stuart' brought to life by Adrian students

• Adrian sculptors

Ben Mulder and Austin Thier are shown with Stuart, their tape sculpture art project

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ADRIAN — Stuart sat alone Friday morning, watching his peers from across the cafeteria as they conversed over breakfast. He would have joined them if only he could talk — or if he was alive.

Stuart is the school’s resident art project crafted by students Austin Thier and Ben Mulder. Within the two weeks of his completion, he has appeared at a few unexpected places in the building.

“I gave them a couple of ideas and they decided they wanted to do a tape sculpture,” said art teacher Dani Wedeking, adding that she had showed them works by artist Mark Jenkins — well known for his tape sculptures and street installations. “This is my first year teaching and I did not know much about what they had done before. I thought this would be a fun, new project for them to do.”

As advanced level students, Wedeking said that Thier and Mulder had a choice to join in the class project or work on their own. With Mulder as the model for the project, Thier said she started with wrapping multiple layers of plastic wrap around him.

“We did each body part at a time,” she explained. “Then we went around him with packaging tape, and finally we cut him out of it. We taped it back to make the actual sculpture.”

Standing at about 5 feet 5 inches tall, Stuart’s torso was stuffed with newspaper for a sturdy build, Mulder said. The pair used a CPR dummy as a mold for his head.

“Getting him to stand was a big thing — we put wooden dowels in him,” Thier added.

From the ideas and information received from Wedeking, the pair worked on their project daily, taking almost two weeks to complete it. Wedeking credits the duo for working at a good pace and being responsible for the sculpture.

Similar to how Jenkins has positioned his art sculptures at random public locations, the high school students have taken it upon themselves to move Stuart around their school.

Dressed in a grey sweater and jeans, with his head facing the corner of the hallway, Stuart could pass for a student.

“He’s spent a lot of time in the library, and he’s been on a ladder and also in the office,” Thier said. “One teacher called the office because she thought someone was crying in the corner.”

In an effort to expose her students to art galleries and displays, Wedeking will be accompanying them on a field trip to Mankato next year. The field trip will be paid for by a $900 grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts and Humanities Council.

The grant is available, in part, through appropriations from the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the state’s general fund, and the arts and cultural heritage fund that was created by vote of the people of Minnesota on Nov. 4, 2008. Wedeking added that a 10 percent match for the grant was contributed by Community Education.

“When I talked to them, most of the students had not been to MIA (Minneapolis Institute of Arts) or Walker or to any other art galleries,” she said. “I want introduce them to how artists display their works at galleries in the community.”

Wedeking plans for them to visit galleries at Minnesota State University, Mankato, the Carnegie Art Center, and the 410 Project — a space rented by graduate students to display their art work.

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