Exon. - Exeter College - University of Oxford

COLLEGE NEWS
A Culture of Sculpture at College
An Exonian celebrates the influx of art into the College.
BY Martin Grosvenor (2006, English)
Lizzi Porter’s sculpture demonstrates
the impermanence of ‘home’.
“The sculpture asks
the viewer to consider
the implications
of migration.”
Prize-winning artists may not be the
first thing that comes to mind
when you think of Exeter; however,
the recent omnipresence of sculpture
may have changed all that. The
College buildings and the quad have
welcomed works by the Turner
prize-winning artist Antony Gormley,
as well as our very own Fine Art
student Lizzi Porter (2006, Fine Art).
In February, the sculptor Antony
Gormley visited Exeter to unveil one of
his sculptures, donated to the College
by an anonymous benefactor. Although
the iron figure, which stands on the
roof of College facing over Broad
Street, may not be as colossal as the
Angel of the North (his most famous
work) it definitely makes a dramatic
addition to the central Oxford skyline.
Lizzi Porter’s sculpture, which could
be seen in the centre of the front quad,
was a very different structure: a
construction of silver birch, wire and
olive wood in contrast to Gormley’s
cast iron. As the fragile framework of a
birdhouse, Lizzi’s sculpture questions
the enforced exodus of the College
pigeons – courtesy of HawkForce. The
sculpture asks the viewer to consider
the implications of migration and what
it means to be a refugee and forced
from your home. The skeletal frame
reflects the “impermanence of shelter,
of safety [and] the fragility of the place
we call home”. Lizzi will be graduating
this year and has been awarded the
prestigious Red Mansion Art Prize,
which will involve an artistic exchange
to China and an exhibition in Beijing.
12 EXON Autumn 2009 www.exeter.ox.ac.uk/alumni