Illinois State will unveil a Redbird sculpture, Saturday, that the athletics department will incorporate into the pre-event pageantry at all of its home contests.
The piece will make its initial appearance Saturday prior to Illinois States football game against Prairie View A&M.
For Redbird athletics contests, the sculpture will be placed near the point where each team enters its playing facility. Athletes will touch the bird before moving out onto the competitive venue.
We think it will foster some tradition, but our goal in adding the bird was to further unify our student-athletes in the common cause of representing our university and athletics department, said ISU Athletics Director Perk Weisenburger. At many universities ceremonies of this nature are limited to just one or two teams. We wanted this piece to be mobile so that all our teams could share in what it represents.
With nearly 400 student-athletes and 19 sports we can get a little far-flung from time to time, but the fact remains that we are all Redbirds. We want our student-athletes to feel a closeness. We also think this will add to their experience of representing ISU and the affinity they feel for their university.
The sculpture was created by Normal resident Rick Harney, who received notoriety last summer when his sculpture of Abraham Lincoln sitting on a park bench was unveiled at the old McLean County Court House as part of the Bloomington Sesquicentennial celebration.
The Redbird sculpture sits on a four-and-one-half foot tall wood stand that is covered with color-core formica. At its base, the stand is flared to approximately 108 square inches for stability. The stand was constructed by Kent Carpenter of Bloomington and Rick Holt of Normal.
Harney, originally from Peoria, graduated from ISU in 1986. He admitted that he has not been a big sports fans, but that this job as renewed his interest.
This was different than anything Ive ever done, said Harney. The challenge was to give it personality. The goal was to transfer something that is 2D into 3D and make it texturally interesting and attractive up close or from a distance.
The feathers in the back were a pain. For me, the piece needed a challenge. The rest of it is pretty simply forms, but the feathers were by far the most difficult part.
Harney said the sculpture spent approximately seven weeks in production. It is created from a two-part urethane that includes pulverized bronze. The sculpture stands two feet high atop its stand and measures 15 inches across.
