Touch

Photo By: Ralph Helmick

The public art, Touch, is a two-part artwork honoring the power of touch. The project was created by artists Ralph Helmick and Stuart Schechter.

This sculpture, located at the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, is suspended in the third-floor atrium. Touch is comprised of hundreds of precisely suspended cast pewter elements. This complex array employs a three-dimensional pointillism wherein numerous small sculptures—in this case, portraits–coalesce into an epic human hand. This open hand assumes a relaxed pose, a gesture known as an expression of universal benediction. As such, it acts as a cross-cultural, non-denominational blessing.

Beneath this large sculpture is a companion sculpture hovering between the ground-level entryway and the second floor. Assuming a more horizontal, cradling gesture, it is also composed of many small likenesses.

All of the component elements are multiples of fourteen individual portraits. Staff and patients at the school inspired the choice of subjects, as did a line from Shakespeare’s As You Like It, where the character Jacques describes seven stages of Man progressing from infancy through adulthood and old age. In the artwork, seven females are represented as well, reflecting the range of ages and ethnicities of those using the facility.

In combination, the two sculptures create an implied circular connection that is rhythmic and welcoming.