Tubes 01
Little Rock, AR
2021

Tubes 01 is a public art proposal for a prominent road intersection the city of Little Rock, Arkansas.  The sculpture is to be fabricated using residential fence materials – wood posts, concrete footings and Sonotube formwork – removed from the familiar and featured in a floating design. Thinking about how an intersection is a break in each of the roads and a locus of possibilities, the piece removes materials from their traditional, grounded location and allows them to take flight. Ordinarily the solid encasement for a concrete pour, the altered Sonotube embodies lightness, pierced with portals, and lifted up for direct contemplation. The alignment at various angles seems at first glance precarious, but a deeper reading of the rigid configuration of tubes and visible connections bring it back to equilibrium.

As a point of interaction for both cars and pedestrians, the sculpture appeals as both a brief, passing landmark and as an object of deeper engagement and contemplation. Participants absorb its aesthetic as an integrated piece, while glimpses through the portals reveal the inner working of the assembly. As they engage, they will be treated to different aspects of the piece – its paradoxical lightness and angles as well as glimpses into the stable core of the structure. Essential to the fabrication of the structure, the perforations encourage a dynamic engagement, drawing the eye, and encouraging interaction by approaching to peer more deeply within.