FORM AND SUBSTANCE

Three-dimensional public art is forging a new landscape

BY ANDY SMITH

Murals 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 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 di erent 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

LEFT: “OPEN BOOK, OPEN MIND” AND BOTTOM RIGHT: “NESTED HIVE,” ©JANE FIELDS. TOP RIGHT: “SANTE,” ©LYDIA BITTNER-BAIRD

“Nested Hive” (2020) by RE:site Studio

Along with workout and wellness o erings, the Eastway Regional Recreation Center also added new public art to Charlotte. RE:site Studio in Houston created the “play sculpture” as a celebration of bees and other pollinating insects; visitors sit in multiple “hives” within the whimsical structure. Native wildflowers inspired the vivid colors, although one Instagram comment from the studio asks: “Ever wonder what it’d be like to be inside of a jawbreaker?” 423 Eastway Drive

“Open Book, Open Mind” (2020) by Jim Gallucci

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library erected a new sculpture during recent renovations at the South County Regional branch. Gallucci’s tunnel of book covers includes several classics, including Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” and Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple.” The library is Mecklenburg County’s largest regional library. Residents of the neighborhood submitted and voted on names for the sculpture, while library sta then selected book titles etched into the canopy of book covers. 5801 Rea Road

“Santé” (2020) by Matthew Steele

Steele, a Goodyear Arts member and one- time resident, worked for nearly a year on his 20-footwide sculpture at Charlotte Skin & Laser. The massive, illusionary face, made from more than 150 sheets of aluminum composite, began with an idea from business owner Dr. Elizabeth Rostan, and Steele used more than 10,000 nuts, bolts, and brackets. Hodges Taylor, the consultancy and gallery that represents the artist, calls the work “both a detailed and fractional survey of the human form.” 130 Providence Road