douglas Kornfeld
"Meeting Of Minds" - 2005
Steel and perforated steel - 16' x 29' x 18' - City Park, Denver, CO. Commissioning Agency: Denver Office of Cultural Affairs.
In 2005 this sculpture won a national award from Americans for the Arts, which recognized the artwork as “one of the most exciting, compelling, and innovative public artworks in the United States.”
The upright head depicts the profile of an African-American woman looking out to the adjacent North Denver neighborhood. The second head, with the profile of a generic male, appears to be sinking into the ground. The sculpture is sited adjacent to the City Park golf course. The artwork is intended to symbolize the changes in thinking that finally allowed African Americans to play this golf course located in their neighborhood.
In the head of the woman there is an oval that, from a distance, looks like a brain. Upon closer examination the “brain” is filled with a jumble of figures similar in style to the international male and female symbols. These figures are quite different from the usual male and female icons we see every day. They depict men and women in a variety of different shapes and sizes rather than the standardized and stereotypical way. These are thin, fat, tall, short, muscular, and portly etc.... Some even have different sized heads alluding to different ways of thinking. These figures depict the diversity of the community. The head of the male figure is filled with the standard international male and female icons we see every day. They are lined up in precise rows male, female, male, female. This arrangement symbolizes a corresponding regimentation of thinking.
