Public Art in the USA, Alphaforms
The history of mankind is written in the Alphabet
Public Artwork, Alphaforms is installed at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (USA). Julie won this commission from a juried competition. The artwork is multilayered consisting of stone tablets and text contributed by the students and faculty at the university. Alphaforms is a series of 27 stone tablets . Each tablet is hand-carved with an individual image or letter form to correspond with the 26 letters of the western alphabet from A to Z. The series trace the evolution of the alphabet and written communication, which is also the story of human history.
Alphaforms uses the alphabet as a timeline to show the history of mankind. A is an ox from the cave paintings at Lascaux, D is a hieroglyph, P is renaissance chancery hand, Z is in the ones and zeros of the binary code of the computer. Each letter correspondes to a historical development in human history.
All photos made by Ben Blackwell, Omaha, Nebraska.