“The Circle of Gold, Destruction and Renewal”, 2012, by artist Denise Milan is made of bronze, is sited in front of GSU’s “G” Building, and is in conversation with “Earth, the Blue Stone”, 2012 – both sculptures are part of the gallery exhibition: “Mist of the Earth” in the Visual Arts Gallery through April.

NATHAN MANILOW SCULPTURE PARK

Denise Milan “Mist of the Earth”

In 2022 the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park at Governors State University in the Chicago Southland, also known as theNate, installed two sculptures by the Brazilian artist Denise Milan: “Earth, the Blue Stone” and “Circle of Gold, Destruction and Renewal”.

On Tuesday, April 9, 2024 artist Denise Milan will visit us from Brazil to present an artist’s talk, a vigil, and the gallery exhibition: “Mist of the Earth”. During the artist’s talk, the connections between the outdoor sculptures and the indoor gallery exhibition will be explored in three themes: Paradise, Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regained – reexamining the medieval myth of Brazil as paradise on Earth since the Age of Discoveries.

“Earth, the Blue Stone” represents Paradise. Milan explains her choice for the name and material: “… the astronauts of Apollo 17 on their way to moon, saw for the first time in 1972 the entire circumference of the Earth all lit up in space and exclaimed: “It’s a blue marble”. We know that the Earth crust is basically made of what we call stone. We live in a blue stone. To imagine this blue stone spinning in the vastness of the universe is to understand that we are part of a large family, that we exist and are all connected with our planet, sharing the same experience.”

 “Circle of Gold, Destruction and Renewal” is the symbol of humanity’s adoration of material riches, wealth, and power – as we know from the Greek much of king Midas and the biblical Golden Calf. In the second theme Paradise Lost, it represents the search for Eldorado, the greed for gold in colonial Brazil that relied on slave labor and led to devastation of the land. However, in Paradise Regained, now gold brings blessing of purification and redemption of the enslaved lives in the past. It is the transmutation of the old wounds, purification of the lost souls and of our Brazilian national psyche in search of healing.

Just like in the Middle Ages, alchemists searched for the perfection of all matter on any level, including that of the mind, spirit, and soul, transmuting one substance into another, the “Circle of Gold” becomes a way of transcending the current times to reach enlightenment; as contemporary art, it offers the blessing for the regeneration of a harmonious hopeful future free from any type of enslavement.

Denise Milan is based in São Paulo, Brazil. She works with natural resources, and stones are particularly important to her. She tries to bring out what she call the “Language of Stones”. Denise Milan works across multiple media and disciplines. She uses the stone as her creative axis, which leads to a production the embraces publica art, sculpture, urban performance, scenic arts, opera, poetry, printing, videoart, and multimedia art. Milan’s works have been exhibited in renowned national and international institutions and she has participated in the 20^th, 21th, and 33^rd Biennal of São Paulo, as well the most recente 13^th Mercosul Biennial, where her work “TrincAr” was prominently displayed.

Also by Denise Milan, (and Ary Perez), “Americas’ Courtyard”, is a part of the City of the Chicago public Art Collection and is located just south of the Adler Planetarium. It is composed of fifty-six rectangular blocks of granite configured in concentric circles with four large pieces of marble in the center, resembling a spiral galaxy, and as ancient celestial observatory. Astronomer Plyllis Pitluga helped the artists arrange the stones to create four pathways representing the sun’s passage during the seasonal solstice.

“Mist of the Earth”

Exhibition Dates: April 8 – May 3, 2024

Meet the Artist – Artist’s Talk: Tuesday, April 9, 2024

4 p.m. room F-1622 Lecture Hall

5 – 7 p.m. reception to follow, Visual Arts Gallery