Photo by Jenny Gerow

William Bennett, “Loomings.” Steel, wood, fabric, water and earth.

Whale of a sculpture on display at Fayerweather

Inspired by the title of the first chapter of Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick, William Bennett created “Loomings,” a 25- by 22-foot sculpture installed in front of Fayerweather Hall through April 30.

Bennett, a professor in U.Va.’s McIntire Department of Art, describes his sculpture as a metaphor of travel, “capable of journeying beyond the horizon to memories of time and place where our collective identity still, in part, resides.”

Bennett originally created the piece for a riverfront exhibit in New York City. Last summer, it was exhibited at the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Mass.