“Non Semper Ea Sunt Quae Videntur” (1991)—Latin for “things are not always what they appear” a bronze and granite sculpture by John Van Alstine that distills one of his central concerns: transforming weight into apparent motion. A curved granite “rocker” supports a tall, rough-hewn column, while two perpendicular bronze cylinders beneath suggest a precarious, rolling balance—like a 1950s bongo board (a device the artist used in his youth for ski training). The effect is immediate: the entire mass seems as if it could shift or rock at any moment.

 

Yet the danger is illusory. The cylinders are pinned, fixing the composition and subverting expectation. This tension—between perception and structural reality—drives the work, reinforcing how stability can masquerade as instability, and mass as motion.

 

Within Van Alstine's career, the sculpture reads almost as a manifesto. For decades, he has choreographed stone and metal into configurations that appear to defy gravity, prompting reflection on balance, risk, and permanence. Here, a massive form seems poised in motion, yet remains securely grounded.

 

Ultimately, the work encapsulates his enduring aim: to reveal a latent sense of movement within solid materials, where certainty gives way to a moment of visual surprise and doubt.