The Hedgehog and the Fox

We spent couple of days in NJ. First there was a wedding then a get- together, after that visiting some relatives and then we were counting down to midnight and waiting for the New Year.

Yesterday, while walking around Princeton campus, next to the massive area of construction work, I saw three huge metal sheets which reminded me of Richard Serra's work. I asked and it was Serra's. We walk through it. It was my first close experience with the Serra's art piece. It was strange and mysterious to walk around it, through it and by it. I like it the most when I waked through it, looking up at the sky is suddenly became the most hopeful activity.






Serra is considered one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century, and perhaps the most significant American sculptor to emerge since the 1950s. His work, standing 94 feet long and 15 feet high, was erected between Peyton and Fine halls on the Princeton campus and is a major contribution to the university’s well-known collection of modern outdoor art. Three vast ribbons of rust-colored steel, is named
"The Hedgehog and the Fox"

It refers to an essay by Isaiah Berlin, who quotes from the Greek poet Archilochus: "The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one great thing." Serra explained, "It points to how scholars either become free thinkers and invent or become subjugated to the dictates of history. This is the classical problem posed to every student."*

*http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2000/11/09/arts/1726.shtml