Handshake
GUNTHER STILLING
What better icon is there for the Virginia Peninsula’s central business district than two hands coming together in the customary sign of an agreement made, a deal struck?
Sculptor Gunther Stilling told a story about how business was done in the village where he grew up. When negotiations were underway to sell a pig, for example, the buyer would open with a low offer, only to have his hand slapped away by the seller. The seller would respond with a price too high, with the same result. When the two met on a price, their hands would come together in a gesture that’s repeated across the world, as well as in Stilling’s village.
For Stilling, though, hands were much more than a way of transacting business — they are the essence of what it means to be human. With our hands, we communicate, we create, we comfort … we do the things that signify us as people. Just from the hands, Stilling said, you can learn much about a person.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
GUNTHER STILLING
The body took on fantastic forms in the hands of Gunther Stilling. Working in metal and stone, he presented us with elements of the human form — heads, feet, hands and torsos — that are rooted in antiquity while, at the same time, they seem to visit from a fantastic place in the future … or our imaginations.
With Stilling’s artistry, a foot that would be at home in a Roman forum sports metal rods and bars — evocative, perhaps, of a sandal like you’ve never seen. A face has fleshy lips and sections of its underpinning are lifted away. A hand is detailed with whorled fingertips and a bandage and a palm that has been sectioned and rearranged.
Often, Stilling’s work brings to mind archeological artifacts, and many of their names evoke classical roots: Ophelia, David and Goliath, Cain and Abel, Icarus, Thermopylae and Sphinx. They can be found in squares, town halls, museums and universities across Europe.
Stilling studied at the State University of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, Germany. In addition to his work as a sculptor, he taught for many years at the University of Applied Sciences in Kaiserslautern. He divided his time between Germany and Pietrasanta, Italy, where he had a studio and where Handshake was made.
Artist: Gunther Stilling (1943 – 2024)
Details: Cast aluminum, 10’ high. Made in Pietrasanta, Italy. Installed in 2013.
Site: Traffic circle at Thimble Shoals Boulevard and Town Center Drive, at entrance to City Center in Oyster Point
Audio Tour
Hear artist Gunther Stilling tell you about the piece.
This is Gunther Stilling and I want to explain a little bit my sculpture Handshake at Oyster Point in Newport News.
There are several points of view of seeing my sculpture. It is cast in aluminum. Inside there is a stainless steel structure that gives the sculpture static stability.
Shaking hands is a deep human attitude. It symbolizes friendship and security. People shake hands when they meet and go away. When they finish contracts, the way you shake hands is transporting emotions of any kind. Hands allow people to communicate in a non-verbal language that sometimes says more than words can do. Hands make people capable to realize ideas and to be creative in all levels of arts and crafts, music, performance as well.
On somebody’s hands you can read many things concerning the person that is behind. Have an intense look at the sculpture. Every time you do this, you might find another aspect of you.
