Holon, Stone sculpture in the South Park Blocks, Portland, US
Holon is a pale, speckled granite sculpture by Donald Wilson standing on a low brick pedestal in the South Park Blocks, between Southwest Harrison and Southwest Hall streets in front of the Branford Price Millar Library. Large blocks with visible seams form an upright body pierced by a vertical rectangular opening, where a darker curving section capped with a metal band joins the sides. It measures 54 by 36 by 18 inches.
Donald Wilson's Holon was commissioned in 1978–1979 and dedicated to Dr. Gordon Hearn, founding dean of Portland State University's School of Social Work. Carved from white Indiana limestone, it was re-carved in granite in 2003–2004 and installed in 2004 in the South Park Blocks, in front of the Branford Price Millar Library. Its plaque records the establishment of social work education at the university in 1961.
Its name comes from the Greek word holos, meaning whole or complete in all its parts. A plaque on the base honours Gordon Hearn, founding dean of Portland State University's School of Social Work from 1962 to 1977, and marks the establishment of social work education there in 1961.
Holon stands on the South Park Blocks lawn between Southwest Harrison and Southwest Hall streets, directly in front of the Branford Price Millar Library on the Portland State University campus. The sculpture is outdoors and can be viewed at any hour; the surrounding park blocks are pedestrian paths rather than roads.
The plaque on the base records that the piece honours Gordon Hearn, founding dean of Portland State University's School of Social Work from 1962 to 1977, and marks the establishment of social work education there in 1961. The name comes from the Greek holos, meaning whole or complete in all its parts.
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