Harris Makes Artistic Statement

Recycling equipment maker Harris, Peachtree City, Ga., has asked Georgia Southwestern State University to collaborate on a project that is part of the company’s 2009 trade show program.

The university’s Department of Visual Arts has been asked to design and build a sculpture for Harris’ celebration of 120 years.

The faculty at the university has viewed videos, brochures, and then toured the company’s Cordele, Ga., manufacturing facility to collect information and ideas for their design work.

According to Laurel Robinson, professor of art and department chair at Georgia Southwestern State, “University sculpture programs are never equipped to build at the huge industrial scale, so we were all astounded by the highly crafted approach to building giant machines.”

Craig Mullis, industrial engineer at Harris, has helped facilitate the work needed to take photographs of the facility and impressions of parts and tools. The impressions were used to make plaster molds and wax components to pour in the school’s bronze foundry and cast in its glass studio. The bronze used was either scrap from Harris or donated from recycling company Macon Iron. Mullis also helped enter the dimensions of the sculptural structure into a computer and cut them using the plasma cutter at Harris.

According to a Harris news release, “The design is meant to imply signature forms used in Harris machines and creatively explore the overall idea of recycling metals.”

The “Harris 120 Years” sculpture will be on display at the ISRI Annual Convention at Booth #449 as well as at Waste Expo Booth # 4056, where Harris will be exhibiting at both of those Las Vegas events.