Largest Public Art Project Installation by New York’s Acconci Studio Planned for Indianapoli
INDIANAPOLIS, IN.- As the Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene & Marilyn Glick races to finish its last legs of construction, its last and largest public art installation is announced.
- “Swarm Street” rendering by Acconci Studio
Located inside the Virginia Avenue parking garage south of Maryland St., “Swarm Street” by Acconci Studio of New York (pronounced “Uh-KON-chee”), is an interactive light environment that the creators compare to swarms of fireflies. More than 1,000 LED-lights will be embedded below you in the pavement plus another 1,000 will be installed in an open steel-framework above you. Movement from users on the trail will activate light sensors that “swarm” around the user and follow the movement through the space.
The Cultural Trail’s Public Art Advisory Committee first approached Vito Acconci at Acconci Studio in 2007 based on his world-renowned reputation as an artist, designer, and thinker.
“The garage is our biggest design challenge,” said Brian Payne, president and CEO of Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) and the Cultural Trail’s co-lead partner with the City of Indianapolis. “In addition to the railroad and interstate, it creates another visual barrier to the neighborhoods south of downtown. We also anticipated that people would be concerned about using a trail that takes users through a dark space. We knew that a public art installation could transform this space from a dark scary place to a vibrant, fun destination.”
“As you walk through the tunnel, as you cycle through, a swarm of fireflies – above you, below you – gathers around you and lights your way; one sparkle attracts another, like a magnet, “ explains Acconci. “When someone passes you, when someone comes toward you, some sparkles veer off in a different direction, and a new flock of fireflies emerges.”
Acconci also has designed a donor recognition wall in this space. The names of donors who have contributed $100,000 or more will be laser cut from mirrored stainless steel and displayed along the interior of the installation.
Based in New York City, Acconci is one of the most important figures in art and architecture working today. From his days as a poet in the mid-1960’s, to his groundbreaking performance works of the 1970’s, and finally to the founding of Acconci Studio in 1988 to help realize architecture and public-space projects, Acconci has pushed from one discipline to the next while always thinking about language and the boundaries of the body. Seminal public projects include Mur Island, 2003, Graz, Austria, where the studio designed a floating island that houses a theatre, cafe, and playground.
The cost of the Indianapolis project is $975,000 and it is funded by private donations to the Cultural Trail. Acconci Studio’s design fee is ten percent, or $97,000, which pays for Acconci Studio’s design team and services, as well as outside consultants for the project. Other members of Acconci Studio’s team include Buro Happold Engineers, Interactive designer Zach Eveland of Blacklabel Development, Interactive designer Todd Holoubek, and RSVP Architecture Studio.
Most of the remaining costs will be re-invested locally by hiring Indiana-based contractors to handle fabrication and installation here in the city. Local construction contractor, Shiel Sexton, will provide construction management for the project and coordinate other sub-contractors.
“Shiel Sexton is proud to help the Indianapolis Cultural Trail and Acconci Studios realize this bold public art project,” said Brian Sullivan of Shiel Sexton, which is donating its construction management fee. “Projects like this not only put Indianapolis on the global map, but they also provide jobs to highly skilled laborers and other professionals, which benefits our local economy.”
Shiel Sexton’s team of five local subcontractors will provide various functions such as concrete paver installation by Becker Landscapes, structural steel beam fabrication by Indiana Steel Fabrication, donor recognition name panels by Tarpenning-LaFollette, Co., aluminum armature system by Tuttle Railing Systems, and electrical circuitry, in-ground and armature lighting by Deem. In addition, all labor associated with installation of these scopes of work will be utilizing local labor forces.
Rundell Ernstberger Associates, the Cultural Trail’s lead design firm, worked closely with Acconci Studio to integrate their project into the Cultural Trail’s overall design.
To date, more than $1 million has been invested into eight other commissions that are in the process of being installed during the trail’s initial design and construction. Artists or architects currently living in or with ties to Indiana created five of the eight projects. An additional three Indiana-based poets have been commissioned for work that will be featured on new Cultural Trail bus shelters with the possibility of five more authors receiving commissions.
Indianapolis-based artist Greg Hull sees this combination of local and nationally-renowned artists as a real benefit to the city’s growing public art collection.
“As an iconic, globally renowned contemporary artist, it’s exciting to imagine Acconci’s work contributing to the definition of public art in our community,” said Hull. “I’m thrilled that the city will gain such a significant work and I believe it will be an important contribution to the Cultural Trail. I am also confident that this project will raise the national and international visibility of the arts in Indianapolis.”
“We are pleased to be working with Vito Acconci and the designers at Acconci Studio. Working with creative minds that push the boundaries of what is being built today is exhilarating,” said Mindy Taylor Ross, Cultural Trail public art coordinator. “Not many cities in the world can boast that they have a project by Acconci Studio. Like the Trail itself, it sends a signal that we are a city that values the ability of creative people to impact the quality of our public spaces and our lives.”
“Swarm Street” is currently under construction as part of the Southeast Corridor. It is anticipated to be complete by the end of the year.
Related posts:
- Site-Specific Installation by Situ Studio to Inaugurate Newly Renovated 10,000-Square-Foot Gallery
- Artist Anita Glesta Creates CENSUS Public Art Project
- Public Art Project Presents Various Puppet Shows to Drivers Caught in Traffic
- Site-Specific Public Art Installation By Pioneering New Media Artist Jim Campbell
- Contemporary Video Installation Features Public Internet Images of the ROM
