The old red sculpture ‘ain’t what she used to be’
If you’ve spent any time on the IU campus in Bloomington, especially over on the east side, near the Musical Arts Center (MAC), you might remember a monumental red steel, abstract sculpture right outside the MAC. That Sculpture, Called Peau Rouge (French for Red Skin) is by Alexander Calder. It was installed more than 50 years ago.
Outdoor art like this Calder sculpture is meant to withstand the elements. But even a sturdy steel giant like this needs some attention from time to time. That’s where Katie Chattin comes in. She’s the Director of Art and Cultural Heritage at Indiana University and the Associate Director of University Collections. Kayte Young spoke with her about the multi-year process of restoring Peau Rouge to its original glory, and the importance of maintaining art in public spaces. https://collections.iu.edu/contact/staff-directory.html
Authentic Movement with Utam Moses et al
On a weekend in June, 2025, dancers and an audience gathered on the Monroe County Courthouse lawn. Utam Moses, the organizer of the performance and one of the dancers, invited the audience to close their eyes and feel the air – the humidity, the wind – on their bodies. As cars drove by and a percussionist played a slow beat, she talked about activating the horizons of our imagination as we activate our imagination of this place. Soon, the dancers would be moving across the lawn in an improvised dance as two musicians improvised music alongside.
The performance came out of a practice called “authentic movement,” which Utam had introduced to a group of practitioners. We invited Utam, Nonie Daniels, one of the dancers, and Kourtney Jones, a poet who also worked with the group, into the studio to talk about authentic movement and what it meant to bring this practice into the public.
Poetry & Migration
Recently, poet Divya Victor read poems at the Gayle Karch Cook Center from her book Curb. Curb explores both on the bureaucratic hurdles that immigrants to America face, and the threat of violence against them. Many of the poems in Curb document the assaults and murders in public spaces of Indian-Americans and Indian immigrants. They describe, in sharp and vivid detail, moments from the deaths of five South Asian men killed by white supremacists. Much of the language in the poems comes from what Victor calls “concrete media” - documents like trial transcripts, interviews with police officers, and clips of dash cam or surveillance footage. Curb was first published in an edition of 30 handmade artist books made by Victor’s collaborator Aaron Cohick. They featured ink rubbings taken directly from sidewalks and curbs.
Speed Cubing
Some people can line up one side, others spend minutes twisting and turning, trying to get it right. Not Aiden Halloran. He looks at a Rubik’s cube and sees patterns, algorithms and shapes. He’s part of IU Bloomington’s Speed Cubing Club, where solving a Rubik’s cube in under ten seconds is just average.