FROM_ORION lands in Chicago
…and is installed at Marquette Park in Southwest Chicago until October 2023
Is it a giant lawn dart?
A badminton birdie?
Sure! It’s whatever you want it to be.
It is also a 12ft (3.7m) tall, stainless steel sculpture and
a scientifically-accurate three-dimensional representation of the constellation Orion.
Five years from concept to execution, untold hours of labor, and funds from the gracious collectors who purchased work over the past two years put back into the economy hiring folks to help build and transport.
… some background …
A concept I like to employ in my work was inspired by the book “Contact” by Carl Sagan.
In the book, an extraterrestrial radio pulse is detected, and upon closer and closer inspection it unfolds layers of increasingly complex information. Though the layers of information in FROM_ORION are not the build plans for interstellar travel like in Sagan’s book, each component has meaning.
From a distance, FROM_ORION may look like a giant dart fell from the sky or a meteor crash sent metallic streaks radiating outward.
But upon closer examination, it has a complex structure of rods and plates, with a sphere ‘cut’ out of the center.
Getting up close reveals an image from ancient Greek mythology:
Orion, The Hunter
And looking down reveals the mirror image of the same.
View looking up, then from the side
Stepping backward reveals more; each rod’s width, length, and direction corresponds to that star’s brightness, distance, and position relative to earth.
This is a three dimensional map of the constellation Orion!
Many thanks to:
@chicagoparks for the opportunity to display this work
@chicagosculptureinternational ‘s Christine Perri and Thomas Plum for coordinating sculpture all over Chicago
@think_sculpture ‘s amazing artisan Brian Witmer, Ben Blaney, and Caroline Folkenroth-Miley
@terrykarpowicz and Michael Dimitroff for a seamless install in Chicago.
And of course none of this would have been feasible without the generous patronage and support from:
Harriet Fabrykant
Terri Gould
Mark Hamm
Scott Coatsworth
Libby Mattern
Kim Kelley
Jason Thomson
Gretchen Hamm
#publicart #orion #stainlesssteel #sculpture #science #astronomy #constellations #metalworking
@sculptorsguild @fatcatfablab
As always, I am constantly looking for new commissions and collaborations, so please don’t hesitate to reach out.