Community Invited to Install Art Structure on Beaufort CCC Campus

Beaufort County Community College’s art instructor Tom Grubb will install a 70-foot sculpture made of bamboo and rope from 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. on March 20. The community is invited to participate in the fabrication and installation of the sculpture. The event will take place concurrently to the BCCC Foundation’s annual Legacy Luncheon in which scholarship recipients and donors meet have lunch together.

This is an all-day event with the lifting of the structure, titled Time-Space Voyager, scheduled for a time between 12:00 -1:00 pm. After the sculpture is lifted into place, Grubb will attach 1,000 feet of rope to the upright sculpture. The public and the BCCC community can participate in its fabrication or just come by to watch. The installation will be in between the Student Services Building (9) and the Elliott Building (1). This sculpture will remain in place for approximately one year.

“In my sculptures, I explore this feeling of space and the passage of time,” said Grubb. “My ephemeral site-specific sculptures are fabricated from bamboo and rope and are aligned with objects off earth such as the moon, sun, stars, and constellations, and the viewer, over time, can see the bamboo age and turn gold in color and eventually brown. The primary colors of the rope will optically mix in the wind and the spectator can see secondary colors of pink, purple, orange, etc. Throughout history bamboo has represented humans, bending in the wind and always springing back after adversity.”

Grubb uses simple, earthly, and ancient materials to connect humanity’s past with a fascination with the cosmos. Through the work, he hopes to draw attention to the protection of our natural resources and the exploration of space. He believes that through the seeking of the unknown, people can grow and develop on planet Earth and reach for the stars in their exploration of the universe.