I just got back from two weeks in Germany, where a strange thing scratched at my curiosity. I was riding a friend's bicycle around one day when I came across this sculpture – a piece I had seen several times before outside the local government building near the old city center.

Where had I seen this before? I realized it several days later after I returned to Columbus. It was strikingly similar to the sculpture outside of the new student center on the campus of Columbus State Community College.

Despite the differences between these two pieces, this could not be simply a coincidence. I started by looking up the piece from Mainz. It was titled "Lebenskraft" (which means something like "vitality") and had been erected in 1979 by Spanish artist Andreu Alfaro (Spanish / German). You can find little of Alfaro in English, but Wikipedia has a page in both Spanish and German, from which I understand him to be an influential constructivist artist working who used metals in ways others had not done before. Interesting. Next, I visited the Columbus State piece in search of a signature or artist description. it was not Alfaro, but David Barr, who is also an experienced if slightly more contemporary sculpture with a long resume of accomplishments. 

I emailed Barr and asked him about the relationship between his work and Alfaro, whether there was a personal or professional connection between them. I'm sure he will waste no time in responding to my random email, and when I get answers I'll let you know what he says.