It's a Mistree
Newly installed near the Illinois Terminal Building
The Public Art League is proud to announce the installations of It’s a Mistree and Ascend the Wind, two sculptures by Mike Helbing, on Thursday, October 31st. The Public Art League worked with the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District to install It’s a Mistree on the University Avenue side of the Illinois Terminal and the City of Champaign to install Ascend the Wind in front of the Champaign City Building on Neil Street. These sculptures, the 38th and 39th brought to the community through PAL, are possible thanks to the generous support of these two sponsors.
Mike Helbing’s sculptures have been featured in museums, galleries, and public spaces across the United States and in Canada. Helbing received his M.F.A. from Northern Illinois University in 1991, but long before was influenced by his tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, of which he recalls, “War is like a crucible where elements of life are placed together and heated to incredible mental temperatures and the very assumptions and basis of existence are challenged, changed, rearranged and reconstructed.” Helbing sought to rebuild his reality through his work as an artist, and his art examines his place in the world and invites visitors to share the journey of discovery.
Both It’s a Mistree and Ascend the Wind are composed primarily of found stainless steel. According to Helbing, “Much as writers form thoughts that grow into stories using words, my found objects are analogous to language, and these objects are reassembled to create new meaning. The things I collect are rearranged and modified, cut and attached, grouped, bent, reduced, chipped, welded, ground, assembled and polished. This presents the familiar in a new light, causing the everyday to be looked at with new wonder.”
Ascend the Wind
with artist Mike Helbing and David Wilcoxen (PAL President)
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