New sculpture graces the entrance of Atwood

By Caleb Friday

Imagine taking a journey through the cosmos, seeing wavering wisps of lights and colors never before imagined.

Imagine sailing through constellations, pockets of ice, and planets harboring secrets.

Then imagine being pulled toward one of those planets with a force beyond your will, and being brought down to a little part of planet Earth known as St. Cloud.

All of this does happen, in fact.

Except that it all takes place within the creative turn of mind and active hands of a local area sculptor.

A one-time student and professor at St. Cloud State University, Nasser Pirasteh has been willing to share a bit of his inventive energies with the campus community in the form of “Moonwalker.”

Part of an ongoing series dealing with the universe and humankind’s place within it, Moonwalker is located on the back side of Atwood Memorial Center. It is situated on the veranda immediately outside AMC’s rear doors, quietly among the green patio tables and chairs.

Moonwalker is just one part of a series of works. The rest of Pirasteh’s “Cosmic Journey” series is not available for viewing at SCSU. Viewers can only imagine how the other works of the series appear.

Moonwalker by itself symbolizes the extent or abundance of the viewer’s imagination and recognition.

It is an intimate work of art that yields more with a little pause in thought and time.

Standing as a solid block, Moonwalker is an intricate conglomeration of the artist’s reactions and realizations of all that supports humankind.

It is an idea Pirasteh tried to convey in words.

“You may think of me as a reporter … except that I report for centuries.”

“News influences my work, the black and white issue, things that are around, politics,” Pirasteh said. “They all play a part.”

As clear and as simple as it is, the ideas that Moonwalker comes to represent take a moment or two to understand.

Subtle notions of a human interconnectedness with the cosmos and stars, the inability to extract oneself from the going on of society and societies, and wanting to stop for a moment and actually take notice of the things that surround people are feelings evoked by the sculpture.

By Friday, Caleb. “New Sculpture Graces the Entrance of Atwood.” The University Chronicle (St. Cloud State University), St. Cloud, Minnesota, c. 1994–1997.