Art becomes biography for Mike Rathbun

By Dana Oland

 MIKE RATHBUN’S “THE SITUATION HE FOUND HIMSELF IN”

The Boise Art Museum’s sculpture court looked more like a hard-hat area than an art space last week, as sculptor Mike Rathbun and crew sawed, hammered, rigged and hoisted his wooden epic 7 feet into the air.

The 190-foot cylindrical sculpture — titled “The Situation He Found Himself In” — sweeps through the space in a giant arc, bisecting the windows, reaching outside the building and appearing to reenter it through the smaller gallery space to the east.