For some time now, I have been looking for a way to use the talents that God has blessed with to further His kingdom. Since my natural talent is photography I wanted to find a way to use my images in a meaningful way alongside faith based content.
Tonight I decided to delve deep into my photo archives and feature some photos that I took way back in 2011 when I lived in Orange County in Southern California. These images feature the monolithic sculpture known as Connector that was created in 2006 by the artist Richard Serra. You can find it on the grounds of the Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa.
Since I wanted to focus on Biblical knowledge and Wisdom, I thought that Connector was an excellent visual to correspond with the text. The angles of the giant metal sculpture are indeed thought inspiring, and to be honest, staring at it like I once did used to spawn many profound ideas about life in my sentimental little mind. The cool thing about Connector, is the fact that it is designed to be viewed from both the outside and the inside.
Yes, you can walk inside the thing.
Once inside the thought provoking power of Connector takes on another level as you gaze upward towards the light shinning inside from it's open skylight. (See Photo Below)
Looking upward towards the light, while seeking wisdom is exactly where I wanted to go with this story that not only focuses on an inspiring piece of art, but also some of the most profound scripture from the Bible in the book of Proverbs.
Let us dive into the first chapters of Proverbs and see what inspiring wisdom God has for us:
1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
2 To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight,
3 to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity;
4 to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—
5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,
6 to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
The Enticement of Sinners
8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason;
12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13 we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder;
14 throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse”—
15 my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths,
16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.
17 For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird,
18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives.
19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.
20 Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice;
21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?
23 If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
25 because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you,
27 when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
30 would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof,
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.
32 For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them;
33 but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”
Here is some more information about Connector from the Segerstrom Concert Hall website:
With the construction of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall nearing completion, Elizabeth and Henry Segerstrom commissioned Richard Serra to create this sculpture as the highly visible focal point for the newly expanded Segerstrom Center for the Arts.The weatherproofed steel Connector sculpture was installed in 2006. At 65 feet high, the 360-ton steel artwork is set on a pentagonal ground plan. Constructed of five torqued weatherproof steel plates that were fabricated in Siegen, Germany, the sculpture was assembled on site, rising from a twenty-foot position at its base to a four-foot opening at its top. The sculpture is sited on the main axis of the plaza, and visitors are encouraged to walk around it and through it. Inside, the aperture at the top opens to the sky.
Serra began a series of vertical, leaning plates in 1971 with a sculpture for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Connector is an extension of this series. Aptly titled Connector, this challenging and innovative sculpture serves the symbolic function of unifying centerpiece for grounds of Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
About Richard Serra:
One of the most important American sculptors, Richard Serra was born in 1939 in San Francisco and studied English at the University of California at Berkeley. Supporting himself by working in steel mills, as well as the memories his father relayed of laboring as a pipefitter in the San Francisco shipyards, were important influences to his work.
After graduate studies in painting at Yale University, he was given an award to study in Italy, where he began making three-dimensional works in metal. In the early 1960s, Serra turned to unconventional, industrial materials accentuating their inherent physical properties. Over the years, Serra has expanded his spatial and temporal approach to sculpture, focusing primarily on large-scale works, which emphasize materiality and an engagement between the viewers, the site, and the sculpture. As an artist whose work grew directly from out of the “process” art that arose in the 1960s, he still considers every step associated with making his sculptures—from the models to the molten steel, to the long, complicated heavy-lifting finale—to be a part of his art.
Serra’s public works have enraged and confounded viewers as they engaged with particular architectural, urban, or landscape settings. His work can be seen in most cities and museums around the work.
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