Explore the Commissioning of this artwork.
Barrow was commissioned for IUPUI in 2007. The sculpture was installed at the Herron School of Art on Wednesday, May 7, at noon. Barrow will remain on display for two years. Barrow was inspired by Viney's visits to caves and burial mounds in Ireland and France. The word barrow means a prehistoric burial mound used by Celtic people of France, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Viney's inspiration for the ceiling of Barrow came from her experience in an actual barrow in Ireland. While inside the mound's central rounded space, a beam of light came streaming in through a slot in the ceiling. These slots were used to chart the solstices, and the paths of the sun and moon. The space also had empty niches in the walls, resembling the entry ways in Barrow.While visiting the Peche Merle cave in France along the river Dordogne, Viney discovered a cave with paintings and images lining the walls. The artists had crushed red oxide rock into a powder, and then blown it around their hands, leaving a negative imprint on the wall. The thumb and forefinger were touching, leaving behind a repeated circle pattern along the walls of the cave. This is red pattern is the influence for the red in Viney's patterned ceiling of Barrow
IUPUI red oxide prehistoric France solstice Ireland cave burial mound Dordogne Herron School of Art Celtic England Scotland