The towering, four-legged work of art, called Windrapids II, was featured Tuesday during the Michigan Sculpture Walk, an informative stroll that took about 25 participants around the premises of the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building and showcased two sculptures from Michigan artists. The other sculpture, a bronze statue by Richard Hunt, entitled Sculptural Improvisation 2, also was shown.

The event ended with a trip to the building’s rooftop, where a near-panoramic view of campus awaited.

“(The walk) showed me how much is right around us that I didn’t know was here,” Okemos resident Marilyn Deussen said. “It’s just been a delight to look at it and have it explained, and I know I’ll come back.”

April Kingsley, a curator for Kresge Art Museum which helped lead the tour, said the event’s purpose was exactly that: to get people out to explore and understand some of the campus’s 15 sculptural artworks.

“I don’t know how many students are aware of the sculpture that’s around,” she said. “Anywhere they can pick up information about art and culture. … It’s all part of their education.”

Thayer’s sculpture, which is situated outside the building at the south entrance on Wilson Road, was commissioned by the college in late 2007 as part of a competition that called for artists to submit ideas with no specific criteria. He said he conceived the idea for Windrapids II while observing currents in a river in Grand Rapids on a windy day.

“The idea there was that in looking at the river, you see the water current flowing down the river and flowing around the rocks,” he said. “I thought ‘well, there’s also these currents flowing through the air, but you don’t see them.’”

He said the piece was chosen because the college was looking for something large and colorful that would draw attention to the building’s entrance.

When asked her favorite of the two, Deussen said she couldn’t pick between them.

“I like them both for different reasons,” she said.