Coastal students assist in creation of Chanticleer statue

A handful of Coastal Carolina University students are getting the opportunity to assist in the creation of a major new campus statue, the massive bronze Chanticleer for Brooks Stadium.

Working with artist-in-residence Bryan Rapp in the warehouse of CCU’s Burroughs & Chapin Center for Marine and Wetland Studies, art students are learning about the process of turning the clay into the bronze giant that will welcome guests into the stadium.

Rapp says this is an excellent and rare opportunity for students to work hands-on with a sculptor and to tackle a project this big.

Seniors JoAnne Maloney, of Overland Park, Kan.; Chris Kunk, of Washington D.C.; and Amanda Kurfehs of Conway have even gotten to help mold the wave on which the Chanticleer stands.

Rapp says the statue must go through several more steps before it makes its debut for the 2018 football season.
The inner workings of the statue were built out of a welded steel armature, and then layers of chicken wire and a spray Styrofoam were added to create shape.

After the frame was built, Rapp began sculpting the bird out of 3,500 pounds of wet clay. This gives the statue all of the fine details that will be in the final product. The clay Chanticleer towers above the stepladder beside the base at 12 feet tall.

Next, a mold must be created of the clay in order to make the casts, which will be fired in the kilns in the sculpture yard of the Edwards Building. The final bronze pieces will be jigsaw puzzled back together in segments that are ready for bronzing.

Kurfehs is looking forward to the statue being completed. “It’s going to be there for a very long time, and it’s awesome that I’m a part of making Coastal tradition,” she says.

                                                                                          – By Connor Uptegrove