Behind The Brain

In the nineties, there was a competition put on by the Ohio Arts Council to decorate a what-was-once neglected plot of land on the campus of Kent State University. Tyrrell, professor emeritus of sculpture at Kent State, won the competition. One of his main goals for the space was to block out the traffic from the road that runs right alongside the plot. To achieve this, he installed a bank of earth and a retaining wall. To make the area a more communal space, Tyrrell sculpted benches into the walls: the lovers' bench and the philosopher's bench, as he named them.

From the forms of the retaining wall stemmed the idea of book shelving and a brain. The literal brain, placed upon the seat of inspiration, is a destination for the information that flows forth from the concrete cast books. The space as a whole fits into the collegiate atmosphere and stands as a manifestation of the academic process. All the carving was done on site with help from Kent State sculpture students.

The other brain is a more creative representation of a brain, with a stem that runs into the ground, in a more open part of the plaza. The fountain element in the work uses the absolute minimum amount of water so that it never has to turn off and so that there is minimal upkeep. Tyrrell preserved many of the trees on the plot so as to not interfere with the naturally occurring ornamentation that was already present.