sculpture deathmatch 2022

This year's Sculpture Deathmatch was Saturday, April 23.  Held during the busiest semester of the academic year and during the absolute busiest part of that semester, the Deathmatch is something that I keep in my head all year.  I'm always "thinking" about it.  When it should be scheduled is important, but I also have to carefully consider how I'm going to do it.  I have to know the date in order to put out the call for volunteers.  Then I have to know the volunteers in order to know exactly how I need to divide up the teams.  Then I need to know the teams in order to know exactly how much chaos to conjure up during the event.  

This year Victor wanted to be in his first Deathmatch and he indicated that desire to me early on.  He also suggested that it would be fun for him to be paired with only one other team member, perhaps a freshman.  I was very interested in the idea.  I love to get mismatched teams and see how they perform under the intense pressures of the Deathmatch.  

Soon I had a date set and a large list of volunteers.  Shirts and stickers were ordered and the snacks were purchased.  

The weather was perfect and there was definitely an excitement in the air.  Violet wanted to help again this year and she was appointed as one of the judges.  I was up at 4:45 am to run and after coffee, she and I were headed to school.

Freshmen are reluctant to participate in the Deathmatch because they don't know a lot of people and the whole idea is ridiculous even before you consider that a freshman has no sculpture experience.  I recruited MG because I liked her energy during plaster pouring day.  She admitted she was apprehensive but she still jumped at the chance for an adventure.  She joined Victor to create Team Ducks.

Team Leave It On The Horse was a bit of a super-group.  Michael, Georgia, Lux, Abbie, and ECoop have a lot of sculpture classes in their past.  Michael and ECoop are return contestants and none of them are afraid of anything.  Seriously, any one of these students would make a good solo contestant.  

At 8:45 am the teams were announced along with the rules of the day.  Each team was given a 12" steel sphere, 60 feet of 3/8" steel rod, and a plastic container filled with recycled plastic lids.  All of these materials had to be used in the creation of their sculpture.  Other materials could be used as well, but they had to use all of the provided materials.  They were also asked to pick a number between 1 and 5 with no explanation.  Team Ducks chose 4.5.  Team Leave It On The Horse chose 1.

Both teams understood the importance of using time wisely so they immediately got to work.

It was interesting to see MG jump right into an important role working with Victor to create their design.

MG also got a crash course in using the plasma torch.  Victor showed her the basics and then left her to cut out shapes while he formed them with a hammer.

Meanwhile, the opposing team was multitasking with everyone doing a different job and moving very quickly.  

We had a good group of spectators all day.  Sure, some just came for the food, but many of them set up camp and stayed all day while doing work for final projects or just hanging out and having fun.  At noon, we devoured several pizzas and the big surprise was unveiled.  This year we introduced the Wheel of Misfortune.  This 2 foot wide wooden wheel contained 8 horrible misfortunes and the teams were forced to spin.  Remember that whole "pick a number between 1 and 5" stuff?  Well, the number each team chose was the number of times they had to spin the wheel during the day.  Both teams spun for the first time at noon.  Lucky for Team Leave It On The Horse, they chose 1.  They got a "no welding for 30 minutes" misfortune and they were free.  Team Ducks, however, had 4.5 misfortunes to deal with.  This was hilarious for everyone except Team Ducks.  

Providing annoying hourly time updates is a fun part of the event.  This year Hannah reprised her role as our Deathmatch Hannah-Hannah Clock.  Each hour she posed with a new tool to announce the time.

During the afternoon hours, several trips were made to get supplies.  A couple of food runs and a supply run to Lowe's and Walmart were necessary.  The teams continued working while I took my Minions to gather supplies.  

Our friend Abigail was in town on a job and she stopped by to visit.  Seeing Victor in anguish caused her to step in and see how she could help.  Team Ducks needed a few tutus for their dancers and Abigail was on it.  She took some measurements, some fabric and some wire and disappeared for a couple of hours.  

I love teaching people how to use power tools and I especially love teaching people how to weld.  As the 2 person team struggled to divide up the labor, MG quickly needed to know how to weld.  My favorite part of the day was getting to teach her.  She showed no fear and was a natural at it.  Within 10 minutes she was welding completely on her own.  

By this time, Team LIOTH was already painting their sculpture outside.  They began with a simple idea for using their materials and just kept stacking more ideas on top.  Each team member was providing input and helping to solve problems.  Even with 5 team members, they still ran into their fair share of issues but they were moving right along with no outward signs of panic.  

Around 7:00 pm, Team LIOTH was putting on finishing touches and planning their installation.  Georgia volunteered her truck to move the sculpture, saving a lot of time and effort.  Soon the sculpture was oriented on the pedestal and safely anchored.  Then they made a few final adjustments and they were done!

Team Leave It On The Horse with their spider family sculpture.  A job well done.  They worked together as well as any team in Deathmatch history and Micheal didn't burn his hands off this year. They were now able to relax and wait to see if the other team would finish.  

Panic had set in on Team Ducks.  As the minutes ticked away, major design changes were required.  Victor and MG worked together to come up with solutions and there was a lot of movement in that final hour.  As the clock neared 8:00 pm, other heroes stepped in to help.  Katherine helped MG with some tasks while Ethan appeared like an angel and became a crucial helper in that last hour.  

Team LIOTH was watching and Georgia offered to let Team Ducks use her truck to save time.  Soon there was a large crowd gathered in the dark at the final pedestal.  Victor and MG applied paint while Ethan held the sculpture in place.  A few anchors were placed and around 8:45 pm the second sculpture was installed, just 15 minutes before the deadline.  

A very relieved and exhausted Team Ducks posed with their sculpture. We all went back to the studio to clean up and put away tools before heading out to dinner.  

So who won?  

Well, most of the judges were present during the Deathmatch and witnessed the spectacle.  We let the dust settle and on Monday all the judges saw the finished sculptures in daylight.  Each judge turned in their vote to me and the winner is......

Team Leave It On The Horse!  Congratulations to Michael, Abbie, Lux, Georgia and ECoop!

sculture deathmatch 2018

 When the new green leaves come out, the hummingbirds return and the flowers start blooming there's an excitement in the air.  Not excitement for spring, I'm talking about the annual Sculpture Deathmatch!

Each year we hold this event on a spring Saturday in the sculpture studios.  Normally we have 2 teams of sculptors battling it out for a 12 hour period of time.  The teams compete to design, create and install outdoor public sculptures on campus between 9am and 9pm.

But this year there was a bit of a twist...

 We had Team Skeletor made up of students who have not yet taken Sculpture I (Drayton, Justin, Katherine and Hannah)

 And Team Bad & Boujee Barbies made up of students who have only had Sculpture I (Ashley, Jarecki, Brandon, Jamea and Jax)

 And Team $30 or Less made up of my advanced sculptors who have taken classes beyond Sculpture I (Kenya, Dillon, Seth and Adam)

That's right, 3 teams this year.  And boy were they confused by this.

Especially when I revealed the limitations for each team.  Team Skeletor had to use the concrete skull in a visible part of their sculpture.  Team Bad & Boujee Barbies had to use the weird Barbie toy in a visible way in their sculpture.  And Team $30 or Less, since they had a clear advantage, was not allowed to weld.

 It was such a fun day.  I put out the call for interested students several weeks back and I really never know what's going to happen.  Again this is a Saturday amid one of the busiest times of the academic year.  These students could go home, they could work all day for pay, they could tan by the campus pool or they could stay in their underwear all day.  They really have to be a little bit crazy to volunteer to work a 12 hour day for free.  Did I mention this isn't related to any class credit or grade?  

So the people who sign up must really want to be there.  I had more volunteers this year than ever before.  This is why we had three teams.  Every person who volunteered who had not already done a Deathmatch was accepted.  One had to cancel when we moved the date back a week.  One slacked out on me.  The rest showed up with smiles and sleepy eyes.  They had some sugar and carbs and they got to work.

 The Slagle always shows up to support us.  He'll do anything to get good photo angles.

 We also had a ton of visitors.  Spencer came to hang out and ride the new Sculpture horse, Lightnin'.  I put him to work a bit while I went on a supply run to Lowes and he taught a freshman to weld.  He's my student worker so he was qualified and I trust him.  He may not realize what a big deal that is.

 I think that's him on the right and Hannah on the left.  I'm not positive.

And that's Katherine, also a freshman welding for the first time.

 We've been doing this thing since 2013 and I've learned a few things along the way to make it better.  I know how to stretch the budget to feed the troops all day and I've learned to have some help.  I can only be in one place at a time and I can only stand to hear "MCABEE!!!" yelled across the studio about 4,237 times before I snap.  This year I acquired help from Sabrina "Captain Side Eye" Sullivan.  Somehow she has ended up being a student in one of my classes every semester for the past 3 years...until this semester.  Each semester we've accidentally dressed alike at least once and when it happens, someone always documents it with a "twin photo".  We have a collection of these saved on our phones.  

This is probably the funniest one from 2 years ago.  She's a hard core sculptor and it seemed right to bring her in to be the Mini Me for a day.  I think students are more afraid of her than they are of me anyway.  She took over the LanderVisualArt Instagram account for the day.  She took photos, published things to the IG story all day, helped with supply runs and gave people the side eye when they deserved it.

It was a gorgeous spring day on campus.  There were a couple of random students lying in the sun on the front lawn when we came back from Lowes.  As a goof we talked about running out there in our sculpture clothes and tanning with them.  By the time we organized a plan, gathered all the non-Deathmatch people and checked in on each team, the tanners were gone but we still decided to take a break in the sun.  We didn't have a towel but Spencer carries things like this around in his truck all the time so we all fit on his large scale painting with room to spare.  

 Maybe we should keep this between us.  I'm not sure if the Deathmatch people knew where we went for 30 minutes.  And we took the brownie bites with us.  They warmed in the sun inside the container while we dozed in the sun and when we ate them it was like they were fresh out of the oven.  We shared them with the Deathmatchers when we went back inside.

 Back in the studio it was crunch time.  In the late afternoon the teams were feeling the pressure.  J-J-Jamea protected her poof while welding for the Barbies.

 My advanced sculptors hit the ground running and acted like they were not even fazed by the no welding rule.  They went straight to the woodshop and took up residence there.  Adam carved some wood to fit.

 Seth measured twice and cut twice.

Another helper I had this year was an official photographer from our gallery staff.  Amber Snodgrass spent a few hours with us at various times through the day to take photos for us.  She did all the official group and team photos, took some action shots through the day and came back at the end to do wrap up pics.  She's really good with the camera.  So that's me giving some advice to Hannah and Katherine, Uncle Ricky's little man bun sticking out from behind the sculpture on the right and the top of Blue's head over my shoulder.  G and the kids came in the afternoon to see the show and hang out.

 When you stick a camera in a Deathmatcher's face after about 8 hours of hard work, this is the kind of face you get.  There's steel dust smeared across the skin, exhaustion in the eyes but there's still a smile lurking on the face.

 It's difficult to describe the amount of energy the Deathmatch takes from a human.  Sometimes impromptu naps have to take place.  It may be right in the middle of the noisy studio.

Or it may be on the grass the moment your team's sculpture is installed.

 Team $30 or Less finished first.  They were smart enough to design a bench that needed no anchor to the ground saving them a good bit of time and effort.

Team B&B Barbies send a couple of people out to dig holes while a couple stayed back to finish the painting.  They installed with a little time to spare.

Team Skeletor ran right up to the last couple of minutes of the deadline.  The two pieces were installed about 3 minutes left before the 9pm deadline.  

 After the last one was installed, we gathered back at the Sculpture deck for some final photos.  Energy was low.

They rallied for this one and then we locked up and headed for LaHa for a late dinner.  I'm told some of them slept most of the next day.  

One of the Deathmatch traditions that has developed over the last couple of years is the Official Sculpture Deathmatch Portrait.  After taking some iPhone close up pics of each team member to post on Instagram, I'll use downtime throughout the day to do some quick sketches of the Deathmatchers on scraps of paper and matboard found in the studio.  This year I thought I'd skip it because there were so many faces involved but this almost led to a riot.  So I sucked it up and found a piece of plywood and got to work.  The day was busy and people tend to get upset when you screw up their likeness, so it was slow going.  I think I got 3.5 faces done during the Deathmatch.  I was told I had to finish it, so I used some office hours the following week to add more faces.  I still screwed up some of the faces but for the most part there were parts of each soul on the board.  Then I decided to add Sabrina and me since I didn't nail her likeness last year when she participated.  This is the finished official portrait for 2018.  It's no Barack and Michelle, but it's not bad.

Back to our story...

 In the daylight of Sunday we could see what was created.  Team Skeletor's steel forms.

 Team $30 or Less's dragon bench.

 Team B&B Barbies' steel and plastic forms.

Voting for the winner of the Sculpture Deathmatch is always done by popular vote.  This year we returned to Instagram for voting on the LanderVisualArt account.  Anyone in the world could vote by liking the image of the team's sculpture.  You could vote for one, two or all three of the sculptures.  When the votes were counted it was Team Skeletor who came out on top.  Drayton, Katherine and Hannah will be immortalized when they sign the Sculpture Deathmatch Flag to be displayed throughout the academic year in the sculpture studio.  

Each team and each student who finished the day has a lot to be proud of.  All three teams met the goal of designing, creating and installing an outdoor public sculpture within 12 hours.  Each individual made me proud by giving their best and working hard all day.  These are my people.  

Special thanks to the entire Art Department for allowing me to do this ridiculous thing each year.  Thanks to each member of our art family who came out to heckle, snack and work on projects in the sculpture studio just to be a part of the fun.  Thanks to Daniel Sorrow, art teacher at Laurens High School and to Adri Jordan, art teacher at Clinton High School for coming out to visit and watch the Deathmatch.  Thanks to Spencer and Sabrina for helping me keep it all under control.  And thanks to every person who voted.  We'll look forward to doing it all again next year.

sculpture deathmatch 2016!

The Sculpture Deathmatch (copyright) has become an academic tradition at Lander University.  Each spring we set aside a Saturday and choose two teams of sculptors to do battle.  Each team has 12 hours to design, create and install a public sculpture on campus.  We begin at 9:00 am and the teams must have their sculptures installed by 9:00 pm.  We invite everyone to come out and hang with us during the day and we have food and snacks and sculpture giveaways.

9:00 am is very early for college students who have given up a day of rest to participate in the Deathmatch.  For their sacrifice they are given a healthy dose of sugars and carbs to get the day started.

This year's teams were divided by age and experience.  Team Srotplucs (sculptors spelled backwards) is on the left and they are the underclassmen spanning from freshmen to juniors.  Team Firesquad is on the right and they are the seniors, most of them with several sculpture classes of experience.

Before the sun was even out on the sculpture patio, the teams were scavenging their recycled sculptural materials and developing their plans.

We hoisted the official Sculpture Deathmatch flag from Singletary's window.

This year both teams came up with plans fairly quickly and made the most of their morning gathering materials and beginning work on their armatures.  Lunch time seemed to come quickly and the $75 worth of pizzas were devoured quickly.

Spencer is a technical freshman and he got to learn how to weld and use the cutting torch.

Bolt got another shot at Deathmatch fame with her second consecutive Deathmatch.

And Buttermilk got to weld again!

Rashaad was back in his element in the sculpture room.  He's been away in ceramics too long.

Braden and Metal Megan put on their problem solving faces as they worked out how to make steel fire.

Slagle, Molly and Riiiiiiicardo came to visit and help.  Tons of other supportive students and visitors came as well.  Sorry I didn't get photos of all of them.

Welding!

So these were the teams:  Team Firesquad above.  Braden, Drinkwater, Metal Megan, Erica, Calliham,'Shaad and Oscar (see the team portrait below).

Team Srotplucs:  Spencer, Dara, Buttermilk, Bolt, Mini Me and Molly.

And if you make weird faces like that when I take your team photos, you deserve to have them drawn like that in the official team portrait.  I drew Oscar from memory so he looks a little cartoonish.

As the afternoon progressed, the sculptures became more interesting.

These details can get lost in the larger images.

As the shadows grew very long, Team Firesquad carried all their pieces to their installation site and prepared to dig anchor holes.

A couple of hours later, darkness loomed over the installation of Team Srotplucs's sculpture.

After a full 12 hours of sculpting, both teams were still upright, but very, very tired.  We gathered for a quick cleanup and headed out to LaHa for a late dinner.  Riiiiiicardo's family took good care of us there.

It cannot be overstated just how difficult it is to participate in a Deathmatch.  It also cannot be overstated just how cool it is that a college student would want to give up a Saturday and put themselves through such a difficult experience.  Many of them asked off of work.  All of them sacrificed sleep and fun with their friends to do this.  And going to school on a Saturday?  Who does that?  

Team Firesquad's finished sculpture titled "Journey'.

Team Srotplucs' finished sculpture titled "Untitled"

The Monday following the Deathmatch, voting began by paper ballot.  Anyone who wanted to vote could cast their approval to their favorite sculpture.  Voting ended on Friday and the winning team was announced.  And the winner was......

TEAM SROTPLUCS!

Each team member gets to sign the Sculpture Deathmatch flag and they get to bask in their underdog victory for an entire year.

This victory was particularly sweet for Team Srotplucs.  The sculpture went up in the dark and when students returned to campus in the light of day, some were apparently surprised by the rusty sculpture made of recycled materials.  I was told there was some chatter on one of those anonymous social media things complaining about the sculpture and essentially saying it was ugly.  Of course, it would be the height of folly to try to please everyone, but it seems that this sculpture was knocking lightly against the boundaries of "what is art?".  One of the goals of this Team was to find beauty in what was literally a pile of scrap metal and trash.  To take that beauty and to shine a light on it for others to contemplate.  And it's perfectly fine if there are those who are not able to see past the rust and reclaimed materials.  The beauty is still there for those who wish to find it.  

Enough voters found it and were so moved to support the sculpture and it's expression of uncommon beauty.  It doesn't get more contemporary art than that!