A favorite fixture of the Brick City landscape is officially here to stay. David Kimball Anderson’s sculpture, “Baroque Appointments and Machine Parts,” has found a permanent home after the sculpture was generously gifted to Missouri State by the artist.
David Kimball Anderson’s sculpture was part of the 2018 Sculpture Walk Springfield collection and was originally installed on the south side of Plaster Student Union on Missouri State University’s main campus. In 2019, the sculpture was moved near a parking area across from Brick City and was moved again to its current location to make way for the Jordan Valley Creek daylighting project. Brick City visitors can now view Anderson’s work in the walkway area between Brick City Buildings 1 and 3 on Mill Street in downtown Springfield. “I’m thrilled we are able to continue to enjoy this work by David Kimball Anderson with this gift,” shares Vonda Yarberry, Department Head of Art + Design. “This gift is also available to visitors and all of Springfield to enjoy and is indicative of the impact a local arts organization, Sculpture Walk Springfield, has on the community.”
“Baroque Appointments and Machine Parts” is constructed of Corten steel and symbolizes the subjective nature of aesthetic appeal. As a description of the piece from Sculpture Walk Springfield explains, “Within the format of a museum antiquities tableau, a cluster of related furniture and appointments centered in a viewing room, sometimes isolated by a lush velvet covered rope, ‘Baroque Appointments and Machine Parts’ supports the premise that a Ming bowl and a rusted machine part are of equal aesthetic value. It is a fool’s game to attempt to categorize beauty.” The meaning behind the piece seems especially relevant in its current location, where art and design students pass it each day on their way to create and redefine their own ideas of beauty.
To learn more about David Kimball Anderson’s work, visit the artist’s website and hear additional insight in a video interview by Shauna Smith:
Taylor Ladd is a graduate assistant for the Department of Art + Design. She is working towards her master’s degree in writing at Missouri State University with professional interests in writing about art, culture, and food.