The sculpture of a man on a tightrope making his way along at the College of Nursing Building is Untitled by John Payne, a 1989 sculpture purchase for the Reese Sculpture Collection. Payne, a UT College of Business Alumnus and visual arts master’s degree recipient from Georgia State, today specializes in “Kinetosaur” sculptures, featuring dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts controlled by wires and pulleys to “come alive” in interactive installations. A “wireless” feature has the skeleton-like creatures awakening when visitors approach and making their moves as if they were sentient. The Field Museum in Chicago, the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, and the Indianapolis Children’s Museum are among the major installations of his work. The figures are made from galvanized steel and discarded industrial parts and shaped (largely via ball-peen hammer) by Payne in his Asheville, North Carolina, studio.
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