"OZYMANDIAS"
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Featured in Art New England | Featured In Zippy the Pinhead October 15, 2009
Featured in Art New England | Featured In Zippy the Pinhead October 15, 2009
The Decordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts has commissioned Douglas Kornfeld to build the sculpture "OZYMANDIAS". The eighteen foot high laminated wood and steel artwork was installed in May 2009.
The sculpture portrays, in monumental scale, a contemporary male icon. If one argues that the symbols of a culture reflect its aspirations and ideals, then this banal and generic figure used so ubiquitously throughout the world, raises important questions about symbols and contemporary culture.
The title of the work comes from a short poem by Shelley composed in 1818. The sculpture was also inspired by images of ancient Egyptian monuments made during the Napoleonic invasion of North Africa. At that time sand had covered much of the Sphinx and giant monuments at Abu Simbal in Upper Egypt. Link to DeCordova site.
The sculpture portrays, in monumental scale, a contemporary male icon. If one argues that the symbols of a culture reflect its aspirations and ideals, then this banal and generic figure used so ubiquitously throughout the world, raises important questions about symbols and contemporary culture.
The title of the work comes from a short poem by Shelley composed in 1818. The sculpture was also inspired by images of ancient Egyptian monuments made during the Napoleonic invasion of North Africa. At that time sand had covered much of the Sphinx and giant monuments at Abu Simbal in Upper Egypt. Link to DeCordova site.
"OZYMANDIAS"
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
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Above: "OZYMANDIAS" in Zippy the Pinhead, October 15, 2009
Above: "OZYMANDIAS"
Above:"OZYMANDIAS" 3PM on the Winter Solstice.