Sometime over the summer, a sleeping figure appeared beneath a tree outside UF’s College of Design, Construction and Planning.
When Jason Meneely first noticed her, he paused.
“At first, I thought there was somebody lying down dead,” the UF associate professor in the department of interior design said. “I thought it was a colleague or something.”
But when he walked closer, he saw it was actually a sculpture split in half at the waist.
No one is sure when the sculpture of a sleeping woman appeared outside the college, but Meneely wanted to find out who she belonged to. Another UF professor led him to UF alumna Charity White, who created three ceramic statues for her senior thesis in May.
White said she wanted to start a conversation about how residents use public space and how the city deals with homelessness.
“I think so much of our public space we just take for granted for the way it is,” the 30-year-old said. “It became another plane for the conversation.”
The statue’s split accommodated the arm rails in the downtown Gainesville benches, which are designed to keep homeless people from sleeping on them, she said. After completing her project, she threw the statues away in a dumpster.
In June, she heard that the statue had found a new home on UF’s campus.
“I figured it was living its new life without me,” she said.
Gloria Li, 19, and Scott Sakowitz, 19, were walking by the college one afternoon when they looked over and saw the figure.
“What is that?” Li yelled before walking over. She stepped over the figure carefully before walking away.
“I’m like scared it’ll get up,” the UF environmental science sophomore said, with a laugh.
Li said once she realized the message behind the statue, it seemed more meaningful.
“I thought it was just some weird modern art thing,” she said. “It’s interesting to hear the backstory.”
But last week, the statue disappeared.
UF Spokesman Paul Bernard said from what he knows, UF wasn’t the one who moved the statue.
“My guess is that the Physical Plant Division or, more specifically, the Grounds Department removed it,” he wrote in an email.
Meneely said he’s curious about the fate of the sleeping woman. Once he heard what White’s message was with the statue, he said it was a thought provoking statement.
“I’m wondering if this thing is going to become like a traveling gnome,” he said. “The mystery of where it’s gone is sort of the next piece of the puzzle.”
Outside of the College of Architecture, a UF alumna's master thesis project lies in the shade under a tree. The statue, created by Charity White, was designed to create a dialogue about homelessness in Gainesville. The statue disappeared last week.
