A single length of stainless steel rope unwound into surprisingly delicate configurations will be the focus of the Cerca Series in February. San Diego-based artist Anne Mudge will show one from a series of TapRoot sculptures that were commissioned for the new trolley station at San Diego State University. The sculpture, almost sixteen feet high and therefore dominating the glass-enclosed Fayman Gallery, will be visually accessible to viewers both inside the museum and outside in the America Plaza trolley station. This installation will allow viewers an up-close perspective on the work that will ultimately be hung high overhead in the ceiling of the University's underground station. Close inspection will allow viewers an opportunity to experience the delicate, intimate, and clearly hand-wrought nature of Mudge's work.

Mudge's TapRoot sculpture evokes natural themes in remarkably varied ways. Interpreted literally, the sculpture is a representation of rhizomes, or roots. The sinuous, twisted steel also alludes to spinal structures and neural networks. The open-endness of the uncoiled line prompts all kinds of associations-even jellyfish come to mind. Like a cloud changing in the wind, TapRoot encourages imaginative embellishment. Anne Mudge has been creating sculpture for more than twenty years. She shows her work regularly in Southern California and Chicago.

Support for Cerca Series: Anne Mudge comes from the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.

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