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Barking Sands by Peter Voulkos
Photo CreditPhoto courtesy of McKay Lodge Fine Arts Conservation Laboratory, Inc.
Barking Sands
Photo CreditPhoto courtesy of McKay Lodge Fine Arts Conservation Laboratory, Inc.

Barking Sands

Artist
Year1977
Classification sculpture
Medium bronze
Dimensions69 x 300 x 75 1/2 in. (175.3 x 762 x 191.8 cm)
Credits Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Location


  • "Barking Sands" is a bronze sculpture by Peter Voulkos installed at street level at an entrance to the Prince Kuhio Federal Office Building.  Forms of the sculpture are uniformly cylindrical and non-representational. Surfaces were finished to a smooth appearance; a fine circular pattern from finishing wheels remains visible in the sculpture surfaces.



    The sculpture is out of doors in an unprotected location on a low concrete pedestal.  The sculpture is composed of several elements: straight pipes, curved elbows, boxes and cones.  Of the four pipe sections, two are straight and two include curved elbow sections (one haipin and one serpentine).  All four of the pipes are capped with bronze plate where they meet the ground.  Two of the pipes attach to boxes constructed of bronze plate that together form a T-shape; the other two pipes attach to two of three interlocking cone shaped elements at the center of the piece. 



    This sculpture, situated on the mauka (mountain) side of the Prince Kuhio Federal Building, is named in honor of the Hawaiian beach near where Voulkos was stationed as a United States Army Air Corps pilot in 1944.



    According to Voulkos:  "Time frequently mellows artworks and people.  Just as time will enhance the induced patina of my sculpture 'Barking Sands,' so has my work changed over the years . . . In arriving at the sculpture's form, I was particularly sensitive to the building's site.  This work was designed to be viewed from above and eye-level a unique situation for a sculpture.  This sculpture and perhaps any good sculpture contains its own message.