First stop: State fair exhibit

Three people remove plastic wrap from large metal sculpture

Photo by Christopher Gannon.

Clockwise from right, Tom Stancliffe, Abby Hedley and Marie Glaser of the public art incubator at the University of Northern Iowa unwrap a refabricated G-Nome earlier this week at Iowa State's exhibit space on the state fairgrounds. One of four produced in aluminum by Stancliffe's team, the G-Nome joins seven other campus works of art in "Your Beautiful Adventure," the university's state fair exhibit, Aug. 11-21.

With its mates, next month it will replace the original terra cotta G-Nomes created by Minneapolis artist Andrew Leicester but damaged by 24 years in the elements atop the Molecular Biology Building. Like the originals, two of the refabricated G-Nomes have a domed head and two have a cylindrical head. At 400 pounds each, the metal versions are roughly half the weight -- but the same 12-foot height -- of the original G-Nome sculptures.