FORM AND SUBSTANCE Three-dimensional public art is forging a new landscape
M
urals dominate discussions of public art in Charlotte because of festivals like Talking Walls and, let’s be honest, Instagram portraits. But community art takes so many forms, and sculpture—with welcoming elements like built-in visitor seating—leads a pack of recent additions to outdoor spaces. Here are four of them. “Pillars of Dreams” (2019) by Marc Fornes Outside the Valerie C. Woodard Center on Freedom Drive, local kids lost in their imaginations play in this cloudlike pavilion. Marc Fornes of the New York-based studio
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THEVERYMANY writes that it’s an installation “meant to be moved through rather than appraised as an object.” The porous aluminum work, 26 feet tall and 23 feet wide, takes on different qualities throughout the day: During the day, shadows underneath the structure transform as the sun sets, and at night, nearby ground-level lights illuminate it from below. The piece was commissioned by Mecklenburg County, the city Public Art Commission and the Arts & Science Council. The studio also created the massive blue-and-green “Wanderwall” at the Stonewall Station parking garage uptown. 3205 Freedom Drive
“PILLARS OF DREAMS,” ©JANE FIELDS
BY ANDY SMITH
