With poll: University of Michigan visiting artist's 'vessels' a temporary part of Huron River

William Dennisuk's sculpture "Valence" is in the Huron River at Gallup Park in Ann Arbor.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

Dennisuk's gesture became a part of the local landscape Wednesday when the artist installed his sculpture in the Huron River at Gallup Park, where it will remain through October.

A native Detroiter who has spent his last 20 years in Finland, Dennisuk was eager to return to Southeast Michigan and bring public art to the Huron River for the first time.

Dennisuk said he's bracing himself for the public reaction. After a local media outlet reported Dennisuk's works would be installed in the Huron, the artist heard the outcry from community members under the mistaken impression the installation was permanent.

He's encouraging the Ann Arbor community to approach his vessels with an open mind.

"A lot of people like their nature as nature and their culture as culture," Dennisuk said in his studio at the U-M School of Art and Design on North Campus. "I don't see a need to choose between the two."

The Vessel Project

"This isn't 'plop art,' where you kind of just install it then walk away," Dennisuk said of his works, which he's calling the Vessel Project. "My works are meant to interact with their surroundings, to make you think about the interplay between yourself and art and nature."

The Vessel Project is Dennisuk's three-pronged effort.

Part I is already installed in the North Campus reflecting pool. 

Part II was installed Wednesday afternoon at Gallup Park. 

Part III will be installed in the Nichols Arboretum when water levels drop - likely at the end of next week, the university said.

Employing bronze wire to make vase-like sculptures embodying organic shapes, Dennisuk created three works during his fellowship. Dennisuk initially wanted between four and six, including another sculpture on North Campus and one at Riverside Park, but the permit process for the Huron River installations was too arduous to do more, he said.

Vessels also presented Dennisuk with an artistic challenge, which Zack Jacobson-Weaver, coordinator of the fabrication studio at the art and design school, helped navigate.

"Every college kid thinks their idea is the best ever," Weaver said Tuesday, when he was in the studio putting on finishing touches. "I had to help channel some of their energy for the project at hand."

Dennisuk pushed himself by using bronze rather than his standby, iron. He said he also learned to use the high-end design software at the art school, which led him to bend and twist the bronze in ways he hadn't imagined at first.

Everybody loves the Huron

Making the vessels was the easy part. Obtaining permission to install them in Ann Arbor's waterway, the Huron River, was a much tougher process, Dennisuk said.

Before Dennisuk could mount his vessels, he had to obtain permits from the University of Michigan, the City of Ann Arbor, and the State of Michigan. That process started last fall when Dennisuk arrived and was only resolved recently.

"That said, if I had to do it over again, knowing what I know, everything would go much quicker," Dennisuk said.

Chrisstina Hamilton, director of visitors programs at the U-M School of Art and Design, said the Witt Fellowship is for mid-career artists who can not only produce solid work, but can help U-M students develop as artists as well.

"We wanted a project that could build the bridge between the university and the Ann Arbor community," Hamilton said when asked why Dennisuk was awarded the fellowship. "The vessels will help re-initiate that dialogue."

Ann Arbor resident Mike Kelley, an Arboretum regular who makes the "Heart of Jesus" rock formation in the Arb riverfront - and claims to have tagged the infamous "PRAY" train-bridge decades ago - said he wouldn't mind sharing the Huron with another work of art.

Depending where it's located.

"If they put the sculpture near the parking lot near the hospital, that'd be fine," Kelley said. "But it would be an abomination to put it near the Heart of Jesus - that would just ruin the viewing experience."

Next year, Hamilton said, the Witt Fellowship will host the Kartoon Kings, Christopher Sperandio and Simon Grennan. The two will work alongside the community to create a scale model of Ann Arbor.

James David Dickson can be reached at JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com.