Bonewall Sculpture Comes to Campus

Each tidbit about artist Steve Tobin’s Bonewall sculpture inspires more curiosity than the last. 

It stretches to nearly 10 feet high and is parabolic in shape. It is made of over one thousand buffalo bones cast in bronze. And now, thanks to the generosity of donor Roy Neff and his wife, Lynn, it stands for all students to marvel at in the heart of Saint Joseph’s University’s Hawk Hill campus.

The sculpture, erected outside Post Crossing on Nov. 8, represents the intersection of Tobin’s mathematical and artistic interests — he has no formal artistic training and comes from a background of theoretical math and physics. 

“The geometric element gives it a tension like how the frame of a Jackson Pollock painting allows the drips to really reverberate,” Tobin says. “It’s the same thing how the geometry of this piece addresses the horizon and how the curves give it movement.” 

Both Tobin’s use of bronze as a casting material and the repurposing of bones as an artistic object ties his work to centuries of art history. Bronze casting dates back to long before the Renaissance, according to Tobin, and humans have repurposed bones since the neolithic era.

“Art tells a story, a history, a place in time,” says Neff. “It has the power to evoke emotions, to educate and inspire. That’s why Lynn and I were moved to donate the work to Saint Joseph’s campus. Steve has a way of making people look at the world differently, which is exactly what future generations should be inspired to do.”

In Tobin’s eyes, both the sculpture’s shape and its materials guide viewers toward existential musings. Standing at one end of the piece is “like being an infant seeing your whole life ahead of you.” By the time you walk to the other side, life “comes crashing down over you.”

“I like repurposing things and memorializing things by using elements that have a history and then commenting on that history, not just by modeling or simulating that history,” he says. 

Tobin places each component intentionally. If you look closely, you can see how each type of bone, from femurs to scapulas, flows throughout the piece. 

To Tobin, there’s no better place for his piece to be than a college campus, and as a Philadelphia native, he echoes the Neffs that Saint Joseph’s is the perfect spot.

“Art gives a community an identity, and this is a very ambitious and serious piece giving students the opportunity to reflect on something so existential,” Tobin says. “I’m not going to reshape someone in an art museum, but I think students will live with this piece in a formative period in their lives.”

Erin Downey, PhD, the assistant curator at the Frances M. Maguire Art Museum, is excited to have the sculpture on campus particularly for its interdisciplinary influences that reflect the core of a Saint Joseph’s education. 

“It’s very important to always be surrounded by works of art,” Downey says. “The piece is not just about nature, but it’s also about the process and materials and shape itself,” she says.