Dr. Evermor's Forevertron is the 2nd largest scrap metal sculpture in the world, standing 50 ft. (15,2 m.) high and 120 ft. (36,5 m.) wide, and weighing 300 tons. [1] Built in the 1980s, it is housed in Dr. Evermor's Art Park on Highway 12, in the town of Sumpter, in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States.
The sculpture incorporates two Thomas Edison dynamos from the 1880s, lightning rods, high-voltage components from 1920s power plants, scrap from the nearby Badger Army Ammunition Plant, and the decontamination chamber from the Apollo 11 spacecraft. [2] Its creator, Tom Every (1938 - 2020), [3] [4] was born in Brooklyn, Wisconsin and was a demolition expert who spent decades collecting antique machinery for the sculpture and the surrounding fiction that justifies it. According to Every, Dr. Evermor was a Victorian inventor who designed the Forevertron to launch himself, "into the heavens on a magnetic lightning force beam." The Forevertron, despite its size and weight, was designed to be relocatable to a different site—the sculpture is built in sections that are connected by bolts and pins. [2]
In addition to the Forevertron itself, the sculpture includes a tea house gazebo from which Every says: "Queen Victoria and Prince Albert may observe the launching of Dr. Evermor; it also includes a giant telescope where skeptics may observe the ascent." Dr. Evermor's art park is home to a large number of other sculptures, many of which relate to the Forevertron, such as the Celestial Listening Ear and the Overlord Master Control Tower. Other large-scale sculptures include gigantic insects (the Juicer Bug and Arachna Artie), the Epicurean bellows-driven barbecue train, The Dragon, and The UFO. The most numerous sculptures are the Bird Band and Orchestra which includes nearly 70 birds ranging from the size of a child to twenty feet tall, all made from scrap industrial parts, geological survey markers, knives, loudspeakers, springs, and musical instruments, among other salvaged materials. [2]
Every related that he took pride in allowing the original materials to remain unaltered as much as possible, using their original forms in new juxtapositions to create his aesthetic. Although Every has now passed, tours of the art park site can generally be accessed from passing through the surplus store adjacent to it, Delaney's Surplus. Every also created much of the installation art for the House on the Rock, including the world's largest carousel. [2]
Outsider art is art made by self-taught individuals who are untrained and untutored in the traditional arts with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds.
Alex Grey is an American visual artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner known for creating spiritual and psychedelic artwork such as his 21-painting Sacred Mirrors series. He works in multiple forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and painting. He is also on the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and is the Chair of Wisdom University's Sacred Art Department. He and his wife Allyson Grey are the co-founders of The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), a non-profit organization in Wappingers Falls, New York.
Nek Chand Saini was a self-taught Indian artist, known for building the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, an eighteen-acre sculpture garden in the city of Chandigarh.
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The Rock Garden of Chandigarh is a sculpture garden for rock enthusiasts in Chandigarh, India. It is also known as Nek Chand Saini's Rock Garden of Nathupur after its founder Nek Chand Saini, a government official who started building the garden secretly in his spare time in 1957. It has spread over an area of 40 acres (16 ha), and is completely built from industrial, home waste, and discarded items.
The Letter Carriers' Monument is a piece of public art by American artist Elliot Offner, located on a triangular plot formed by North 2nd Street, North Plankinton Avenue and West Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States. Created in 1989, the monument depicts three letter carriers and was commissioned in celebration of the centennial of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC).
Boy with Goose, is a public artwork by Italian artist Girolamo Piccoli, currently in storage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.
Angel in a Cage is a public artwork by American artist Richard Pflieger located on Canal Street, which is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The public sculpture is made up of a steel tower with an angel suspended inside.
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Memorial for Belle Austin Jacobs is a public artwork by American artist Sylvia Shaw Judson (sculptor) and Alexander C. Eschweiler (architect), formerly located in Kosciuszko Park, Lincoln Village, City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The statue depicted a young woman kneeling to feed a squirrel. It celebrated the life and philanthropy of Belle Austin Jacobs, who was best known for her work, with her husband Herbert Henry Jacobs, as the founders of organized social work in Wisconsin, including the establishment of the University Settlement House.
Lynden Sculpture Garden is a 40-acre outdoor sculpture park located at 2145 West Brown Deer Road in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in Milwaukee County. Formerly the estate of Harry Lynde Bradley and Margaret Blakney Bradley, Lynden is home to the collection of more than 50 monumental sculptures collected by Margaret Bradley between 1962 and 1978. The collection features works by Alexander Archipenko, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Clement Meadmore, Marta Pan, Tony Smith, Mark di Suvero and others sited across 40 acres of park, lake and woodland.
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Emery O. Blagdon was an American artist.
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Ruth DeYoung Kohler II was a museum director and teacher from Wisconsin who championed under-recognized, self-taught artists and vernacular art. She was the director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center from 1972–2016. She led the development of the Art Preserve in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the first museum dedicated to the exhibition and conservation of artist-built environments.
The Art Preserve is an art museum and a satellite campus of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. The preserve houses a collection of artist-built environments and sculptural works. It is designed by Tres Birds and located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Opened in June 2021, the Art Preserve is the first museum dedicated to the exhibition, preservation, and care of artist-built environments. The museum also serves as a research space for the art environment genre.