Like most of Norris’s sculptures, this piece is untitled. However, it came to be known, affectionately, by students as the “prairie chicken.” This is perhaps because from a certain angle the sculpture indeed looks like a prairie chicken with its wings ruffling.
It is a hilltop gateway open to the sun. It is the pages of a book spread out for those who will be transported by its content. It is the prairie chicken’s feathers spread in full array or it is the ritual-dance costume of the Blackfoot Indian. Its supporting members grow out of the hill and tell of interplay of the energy between the earth and the sun. The spreading forms create a canopy under which speakers may speak and performers may perfom.
- George Norris