These two sculptures are memorials to Paul Earls (1934-1998), an American composer and artist affiliated with MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The smaller piece is in the MIT Museum; the larger one is in the artist's garden at Tirtagangga, Bali.  As a young man, Earls had studied with Colin McPhee - a Canadian musician who had lived in Bali in the 1930s and had written about its music - and Earls was intrigued by Bali's culture.  He and his wife, Zeren, visited Tirtagangga in 1991.

Shortly before Earls's death, he asked Baxter to design a memorial-piece; and Earls  made arrangements for its funding through MIT.  Sheets of plate-glass that Earls shattered in a public event on the MIT campus were shipped to Baxter's studio and, later, incorporated into the two sculptures.