Let’s Get Visible
On the corner of University Avenue and Highland Avenue on the near-west side of Madison, in between the Best Western Plus InnTowner parking lot and Lombardino’s restaurant, you’ll find a 6-foot, 6-inch-tall fiberglass Bucky Badger.
This is Visble Bucky, designed and executed by artist Phil Salamone with help from Sarah Gerg. While Bucky Badger is a pretty common sight around Madison, this particular Bucky is a little different.
Instead of appearing in his natty, iconic red-and-white striped sweater, more than half of this Bucky shows off the college mascot’s musculature and internal organs. It’s a compelling design that’s both intriguing and eerie, and makes the beloved badger look even more fierce than usual.
Salamone wanted to take full advantage of the 3D Bucky Badger model, so he came up with a design that hearkens back of classic anatomical illustrations from sources produced during the pioneering age of anatomical study, such as Gray’s Anatomy. It’s also reminiscent of the Visible Man and Visible Woman model kits originally produced by Renwal (and later Revell) in the 1960s and 1970s.
Working with more than 300 reference documents and historical photos and anatomical illustrations as inspiration, it took Salamone and Gerg more than 450 hours to create Visible Bucky’s unique look.
Bucky on Parade
Visible Bucky is part of the “Bucky on Parade” art project, launched in 2018 by the Madison Area Sports Commission. In all there were 85 fiberglass Bucky Badgers that were designed by 64 different artists and displayed throughout Madison.
Visble Bucky was originally installed in front of Science Hall (which does seem a most appropriate choice) at 550 N Park Street, near the Student Union in May of 2018. When the Bucky on Parade project ended in September 2018, he was moved to his current location.
Many of the parading Buckys have been acquired by private collectors, but a few others can be seen around the city today.
List of Partial Buckys on Parade on display around Madison
- Bucky de Los Muertos at Lucky’s 1313 Brew Pub on Regent Street
- Pieces of Wisconsin Bucky at the Madison Concourse Hotel
- Graduation Bucky on Bascom Hill, between Bascom Hall and South Hall
- Friday Night Fish Fry Bucky at the Edgewater Hotel
- Bucky (.) exe at the UW Credit Union on Capitol Square
- Bucky How’d You Get so Fly at Kollege Klub
- (#) Gamedaybucky outside the University Book Store
- Ringo 2.0 outside State Street Brats (replaced after the original Ringo was removed)
And in case you’re wondering, yes, all the fiberglass Bucky Badgers were created by FAST Fiberglass in Sparta, home of the Sparta Fiberglass Mold Graveyard.
Visible Bucky
- 2424 University Avenue, Madison
- Google Maps: 43.072140, -89.428560 [ Google Maps ]
- what3words: ///bunks.vase.appear
