Michael Asher: Untitled - Stuart Collection at UC San Diego

This functional, polished, granite drinking fountain is an exact replica in granite of commercial metal fountains typically found in schools, business offices and government buildings. Instead of its usual context as interior office furniture, the fountain is placed monument-like on a grass island in the center of UC San Diego's Town Square. The siting of his work is fundamental to its meaning; it is counter posed with a tall American flag and a granite marker commemorating Camp Matthews, a World War II training center and artillery and rifle range which occupied the land on which UCSD now stands. Asher's work projects several cultural references into one modest object, and it is a play on sculpture's historic role as representation. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37814]