Plumb-Bob: An Activity of Infinite Possibilities
One of the first pieces of art to be installed at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is Plumb-Bob (1962) by Yasuhide Kobashi. Gyo Obata and Jack Randall, architects of the original campus, visited Pittsburgh at the request of founding trustee and donor Arnold Maremont to view the sculpture when it was installed at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Trustee Maremont, who purchased and donated the sculpture, was instrumental in the early design of the campus where he championed the idea of “the role of the plastic arts in the design of a campus.” Obata chose Plumb-Bob and designed the Goshen Lounge to highlight the large mobile. This unique and priceless work has hung over the Goshen Lounge since the Morris University Center Opened in 1967.
Plumb-Bob contains 480 individual wooden rods, strung together in pairs. Kobashi designed the work in this manner in order to give him the ability to “change the proportions of the sculpture, although the basic system, the ordering which the sculptor has imposed upon space, is itself unchangeable. Within this system, the rigidly ordered shapes of art are a thing of the past, and creation becomes an activity of infinite possibilities.”
Plumb-Bob has watched over the Goshen Lounge for 50 years, hanging above gathering students, events and celebrations. Museum staff dusted, waxed and repaired the mobile in 1988 and again in 2003, working high in the air. With a commitment for renovation of the Morris University Center in the works, the University Museum has embarked on a project to restore the sculpture. In the coming weeks, the sculpture will be carefully removed, piece-by-piece, and transported to a professional conservation firm for cleaning, repair and restringing. This detailed professional treatment will insure that Plumb-Bob can once again hang as an iconic aspect of the SIUE Campus.
