Bounnak Thammavong

Since 1989 Luther College has hosted an annual rotation of outdoor sculptures that represent some of the finest established and emerging artists in the upper Midwest. Bounnak Thammavong earned his BFA with a sculpture emphasis from the University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls) in 2003. Since 2002 he has been assistant fabricator to Marc Moulton, head of the sculpture program, and has also served as graduate assistant and supervisor of the graphic design lab at UNI. During his time as a student he received a four-year full-tuition scholarship, was twice awarded the Roy Carver Scholarship, and received both a Presidential Merit Award and a Purchase Award from the University for his work. In 2003 he received a Gulliame Foundation Grant from the city of Waterloo, Iowa. His work has been included in several national juried exhibitions, among them the Sculpture on the Avenues Outdoor Sculpture Competition in Effingham, Illinois; the Washburn University Outdoor Sculpture Competition in Topeka, Kansas; and the 16th Annual Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in Lawrence, Kansas.


Artist's Statement

(Exhibition note: "Temporal Dialogue" consists of two individual works, "Marking a Moment" and "Impetuous Impact," which have found a new relationship in the current installation in front of Centennial Union.)

"Throughout life significant events converge and diverge, creating an undulating ballet of sorrow, joy, and all the emotions between. The best part of life is sharing these events through conversations. After a meeting with an old friend I created ’Temporal Dialogue’ a two piece sculpture abstractly depicting a conversation through visually dynamic geometric forms."

(Exhibition note: "Streamside," located behind the Center for Faith and Life, was created specifically for this exhibit in response to the artist's outdoor experiences in and around Decorah. This is the first public showing of the work.)

"Since the creation of agriculture, people have denied themselves contact with nature. It began with the cultivation of crops and fencing in animals. In turn, huts and villages gave way to houses and suburbs in which we invent our own environment, our own nature, through central heating and cooling systems. Even our recreation is manufactured. Case in point is the activity of trout fishing, which I have thoroughly enjoyed in the Decorah area. I buy a trout fishing license, the proceeds go to the hatcheries that raise the fish, the trout are released into the streams, and I can fish and feel like a great provider foraging for game in the wilderness. Yet, I find it humorous that modern society as a whole has denied themselves contact with nature only to later sanitize and reinvent it so they ’can get in touch with their primal nature again.’ The struggle to find the Neanderthal in ourselves is fleeting because we can go back to an air-conditioned couch when the weekend is over. Yet we still put up the pretence of stalking ’wild & game.’

Bounnak Thammavong
Temporaral Dialogue
(Making a Moment & Impetuous Impact)
Cor-ten steel



Bounnak Thammavong
Streamside
Stainless steel & Cor-ten steel