Convergence XI

June 11 - 18, 1998

[Art Reviews]

Come together

The annual Convergence arts festival takes over the capital city

by Bill Rodriguez

"Memory Swim Ascending," by Margie Neuhaus

As usual, Bob Rizzo was running behind.
"It was too tall to get underneath the trees," he said, patiently looking at the Y-shaped tower of steel wrapped in moving quilts -- Ralph Brancaccio's "You AIDS" -- that several people were sliding on rollers across the park grass across from the courthouse.
"No matter how you measure it, until it gets here are you really don't know exactly how they're going to go together," Rizzo added.
He might as well have been talking about his annual project as a whole. Convergence XI will run June 12 through 21, and each year is a learning experience about everything from the physics of heavy objects to the psychology of esthetics. Rizzo is director of public programming at the Providence Department of Public Parks and, with his silver bangles and sometimes ponytail, he is an unlikely looking a city bureaucrat as they come. Since he is also a sculptor himself, over the years he has developed a summer showcase of public art that by 1996 attracted a concurrent International Sculpture Conference to Providence. Word is slowly but steadily spreading in the national press. And after a decade of neglecting Convergence -- "even though we probably commissioned more New England artists than any other venue in New England" -- Art New England is finally giving extensive coverage this year.
"Eleven years ago when I created the festival and I used the word 'convergence' people couldn't even pronounce it," Rizzo said, amused. "And now I hear it used all the time."
He suggested that while both Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design teach sculpture, Convergence has had stronger impact.
Works by 50 artists are around town, with several sculptors having more than one piece displayed. In earlier years, most of the art was in Roger Williams Park, but now the focus is on the center of the city. Only eight works are in the park this year.
Pointing to another creation, Rizzo walked across the park to a reclining figure next to the South Main Street sidewalk. A blue and white striped rugby shirt and other clothing was painted onto a curly haired man lying on his back, his bronze tan quite literally that. It was "Cloud Watching," by J. Seward Johnson.
Rizzo continued his little tour of nearby pieces that were already installed a week before Convergence XI begins. We passed a tall donut-shaped silvery sculpture by Chicago's Rob Lorenson. Untitled, half of it contained a saw-toothed shape and half was covered by rippling, jagged scales, glinting in the sunlight and blending into granite behind it. Rizzo remarked that with most of the works now downtown instead of in sprawling Roger Williams, sculptural themes and materials have shifted. By and large, environmental comments and natural materials have been supplanted by urban moods and steel. About 30 percent of artists' proposals were accepted for Convergence XI, a typical figure in recent years.
We walked across the College Street bridge to look over several pieces by Providence sculptor Joe Goto, who died last year. Most were of 3/4-inch plate steel, yet the abstract rounded forms appeared so malleable that some might as well have been hand-worked from slabs of clay. Rizzo was particularly impressed by a piece on the polished stone tiles of the cavernous Fleet Galleria. Made for Goto's grandchild, the rusty steel assembly, perhaps three-feet tall, suggested a highchair.
"I think that of all of his, it's probably my favorite," Rizzo said. "That little piece holds its own in this huge space. It just commands the space, but it's tiny."
A few minutes later, we walked past stately seated sculptures from another era of public art, Greco-Roman limestone figures placed in front of the Kennedy Plaza federal building,

"Miol Nir," by Harry Gordon

"Word's getting out around the country and slowly around the world that it's a good festival to be in," Rizzo bragged. "Because it's a beautiful venue and we make an extra effort to treat the artists well. A lot of the other exhibits don't pay the artists anything. We are one of the few that do give the artists a stipend, which allows them in many cases to build pieces that they would have never built."
We strolled over to Harry Gordon's "Miol Nir." The blue-gray stained carved piece was even more massive than some of the steel sculptures: tree-trunk sections balanced and cantilevered and mortise and tenoned. The balance achieved by the massive components appeared as arduous an accomplishment as the towering buildings around it.
Nearby, in front of the curve-roofed tunnel leading to Waterplace Park, was a breathtaking brushed aluminum piece by Bruce White. "Samurai" is a slashing curve upward, a complement to the tunnel opening that curves downward. The location couldn't be more perfect: the rounded façade of the Cookson-America building echoes the motif on its opposite side.
Through the tunnel, next to the still Waterplace fountain, was "Memory Swim: Ascending," by Margie Neuhaus. The outline of a rowboat, sketched in thick steel rods, rode upon thinner rebar rods that undulated beneath it like pond waves.
Rizzo liked it a lot.
He mentioned a little trick they devised to get people to pay the kind of attention he was giving now.
"Each year we take the pieces away, leave spaces for awhile," he said, "so people feel the impact of the work coming back each spring.
"Kind of like tulips rising."
Across the circle of the fountain, the kinetic sculpture of the mall under construction was slowly being assembled between two huge cranes.
Some of the Convergence XI highlights are below. See Listings for things Convergence-related. If it's happening in Providence, it's under the Convergence umbrella.

* Walking tours of the sculptures, guided by local artists, will begin at noon and 1 p.m. at Waterplace Park, June 15-21.

* FIREfest will consist of, first, iron pourings by Minnesota sculptor Kurt Dyrhaug and assistants, at the junction of Steeple Street and Memorial Boulevard on June 11. People are invited to make their own sand molds for iron castings. The second part of FIREfest will be on June 12, with a sunset firing of pottery by members of CenterCity Artisans.

* Things will also heat up at an expanded display of WaterFire Providence at sunset on June 13 and 20. Fifteen additional fire braziers will be placed on the side of the Citizens Bank building where the Moshassuck and Woonasquatucket Rivers join.

* A reprise of last year's popular Art Boat Parade and Beauty Pageant is set for June 20, beginning 2:30 p.m. at South Water Street.

* The Thayer Street Art Festival has been moved back to June 20, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Various other Convergence events and displays have been sponsored by Cumberland, Newport, Tiverton and Westerly.

* Other events include a Groundwerx dance premiere; walking tours of historic houses; the 2nd Annual Convergence Film/Video Festival; Gallery Night Providence on the 18th; plus concerts, singers and plays.