FLOWERS OF
LEARNING
HORTUS CONCLUSUS
NAZARENUS
by ROMAN
VEROSTKO, 2006
SPALDING
UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC CENTER
845 South Third Street
Louisville, Kentucky
A permanent installation dedicated October 27, 2006
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Homer.
One of the seven pen and ink
drawings presented as "Flowers of Learning" in memory of
educators.
Text. Quoted in algorithmic glyphic characters without any spaces between words: Ulysses and his son fell upon the front line of the foe / / / Minerva raised her voice aloud, and made every one pause. ‘Men of Ithaca’, she cried,’ cease this dreadful war, and settle the matter at once without further bloodshed.’ – Homer Text Source: Homer, The Odyssey, Trans. Samuel Butler, Book XXIV [520]. Edition Source: Great Books of the Western World, Encyclopedia Brittanica, Inc., Chicago, 1952, Volume 4, p.322 |
Flowers of Learning
Seven colorful pen & ink drawings, created in memory of Spalding University educators, include quotations drawn from world culture of diverse time and place. Framed within a larger frame the flowers are presented as a hortus conclusus, an enclosed garden, embracing the highest aspirations symbolized in gardens of many cultures – a paradise of peace and tranquility, the Garden of Eden, a utopia of brotherhood, sisterhood and well being - the place we seek yet a place of fullness beyond our reach that beckons us to reach ever higher. This garden honors those at Spalding University, past and present, who have dedicated their lives, as teachers, to help us acquire the tools for our journey.
Within the limits of seven choices, the texts attempt to embrace diverse cultures of time and place: From (1) Homer a passage quotes Minerva who “raised her voice aloud and made everyone pause . . .’Men of Ithaca, she cried, ‘Cease this dreadful war and settle the matter at once without further bloodshed’ ”. Other texts include (2) Madame Curie on humanity’s need for both “practical men” and “dreamers” (3) Lao-tzu on beauty and ugliness; (4) Black Elk on his vision of the “flowering tree to shelter all the children”; (5) Hildegarde von Bingen’s hymn on “the most noble greening power rooted in the sun”; (6) Shakespeare on the riches of summer earth; and (7) Charles Darwin on the “grandeur of this view of life”.
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| Download all images & texts: spalding3.pdf | Photo of the project model (scale of 1:12). Simulated viewer was made from a photo of Wolfgang Lieser taken at the DAM in Berlin in 2005. |
