Man Threatens to Impale Himself on Calder Sculpture

Mr. Yuan Fang, 66, of Flushing, NY threatened to jump seven stories into the Philip A. Hart Senate Office Building atrium on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Monday night. The cause of Mr. Yuan’s distress is not known, nor the reason for his presence in the Senate building.

The Mandarin-speaking man climbed over a seventh-floor railing at 5:45 PM Monday and stood on a narrow ledge, his back to the yawning atrium. The US Capitol Police Crisis Negotiations Team and a translator from the DC Metropolitan Police Department convinced him to climb back over the rail at 2:00 AM on Tuesday. Mr. Yuan was arrested, charged with Disorderly Conduct, transported to nearby Capitol Police headquarters, and transferred to a hospital for medical evaluation.

Most press reports describe Yuan Fang only as a “distraught immigrant” and mention the senators (including Obama) who have offices on the Hart Building’s seventh floor. Jordy Yager of The Hill reports that Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer said Mr. Yuan was already known to Capitol Police,  but did not elaborate.

The 90-foot-tall Hart atrium is dominated by a huge metal sculpture by Alexander Calder, the last creation of the renowned artist, who died the day after presenting the model to the Architect of the Capitol. Called “Mountains and Clouds,” it was designed especially for the asymmetrical nine-story atrium space. It is the only Calder work to feature both of the artist’s trademark inventions, a hanging “mobile” (the four “clouds,” two tons of them, turned in random patterns by a computer-controlled motor ) and a “stabile,” or “standing mobile,” four huge black triangular mountains with arched legs which rise 51 feet to five ominous sharp black peaks.

Mountains, often wreathed in clouds, were central features of the Chinese landscape painting that developed in the Song Period (960-1276 AD). Depending on the prevailing philosophy of the day they were seen as sacred places close to the heavens or reminders of the trifling inconsequentiality of human affairs.

Qu Ding (attributed), “Summer Mountains” (ca. 1023–1056), Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mountains frequently appear in many works of Chinese art created over the last millennium, with more recent work referring back to earlier traditions. Like the Calder work, which is painted flat black to contrast with the white stone and glass of the Hart atrium, traditional Chinese landscape paintings often depend on the contrast of black ink on light ground for effect, and render landscape through stylized form.

Wu Hufan, “Mountains and Clouds” (1945) Christie’s

NotionsCapital congratulates the Capitol Police and the MPD officer-translator for rescuing Mr.Yuan Fang, and we wish that gentleman a swift and tranquil return to health.

 

Top image of HSOB atrium, United States Senate.