Air song is a plaster model of a sculpture designed for the Navy Pier in Chicago during the sculpture walk.
This was a curated exhibition that requested models that would be built for the Navy Pier sculpture walk in Chicago if selected for the final show.
Air Song was designed as a viewer-activated panpipe. The wind was to come into the pipes and create a supply of air blown through the various-length panpipes affixed to the side of the sculpture.
The viewer would activate the pipes by putting their hands at the bottom of the tube, creating the necessary block for the panpipes to resonate.
When observing the pier site, I made three primary observations that gave rise to this design.
The wind on the navy pier was always strong, coming off of lake Michigan, and it seemed the perfect nonelectrical power source.
No matter which sculpture children see, they would always want to interact with the work regardless of whether the piece was designed for interaction.
This seemed to make every work a kind of abstract monkey bar, and the nautical theme of the large aeration pipes that sit atop ship decks that brings air into the bow of ships and release air.
While the work was curated into the exhibition, it was not accepted as a final proposal though instead, one of the collectors in Chicago purchased the work as a sculpture.
WOOD STREET GALLERY, Chicago, Illinois. Jan. 1998
Pier Walk 98 Maquette Exhibition curated by Terry Karpowicz. Displayed a maquette for Airsong, a wind, and viewer-activated panpipe sculpture.
COLLECTIONS
Mr. and Mrs. J. Laurence Costin Of CCC Chicago, IL Collection, 1998