Handmade and Mind Made Our Permanent Collection
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Handmade And Mind Made Our Permanent Collection Raleigh-Durham International Airport Ellen Driscoll’s Wingspun, © 2008; Terminal 2, Raleigh-Durham International Airport Ed Carpenter’s Triplet, © 2010; Terminal 2, Raleigh-Durham International Airport About The Collection Raleigh-Durham International Airport is the gateway to Central and Eastern North Carolina. More than 9 million passengers travel through our airport each year on commercial flights, with millions more arriving daily to greet or dropoff passengers, fly on private aircraft or rent facilities for events. The Airport Authority created its Art Master Plan in 2000 to serve as an organizational tool for public art at RDU. The themes handmade and mind made were selected to refer to the region’s rich history of craftsmanship in furniture and textiles and the high-tech scientific reputation enjoyed today. An art advisory council comprised of Airport Authority staff, regional arts council representatives and others jury-selected the 15 pieces in RDU’s permanent collection to represent the collection’s theme and enhance the passenger experience. The collection’s first installation, The Terminal 1 Art Murals, was installed in 2002. The newest pieces will be installed in early 2014 as part of the Terminal 1 modernization project. Wellington Reiter Skilled in pen and ink drawings, as well as large scale architectural works, Wellington Reiter is a 1981 graduate of Tulane University and went on to study at Harvard University and the North London Polytechnic School. He is known for public commissions using steel and light. His pieces are on display at locations as varied as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tulane University School of Architecture, offices of World Cinema Corporation in California and in private collections around the world. Triangle Icon Triangle Wellington Reiter’s Triangle Icon, © 2003; Parking Garage Entrance, Raleigh-Durham International Airport Triangle Icon Parking Garage Entrance Installed December 2003 Steel and LED lighting Motorists entering the airport’s parking garage are greeted by Triangle Icon. A 50-foot tower anchors the work and points skyward, symbolizing man’s aspiration to fly. It is surrounded by a pair of intersecting wings that honor Orville and Wilbur Wright and represents the notion of flight. Triangle Icon is encircled by a 120-foot elliptical ring, lit by LED lighting, which equals the length of the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk along our state’s coast. The sculpture was commissioned to commemorate the 100th anniversary of powered flight. The only outdoor piece in the airport’s art program, Triangle Icon is a joint project of the Airport Authority and the counties of Durham and Wake and cities of Durham and Raleigh. Catherine Widgery American-born Catherine Widgery has used her years of living abroad as inspiration for more than 30 public art commissions in Canada and the United States and countless exhibition sculptures crafted over the years. Widgery is a Yale University graduate who also attended the Tyler School of Art in Rome. Her focus is on sculptures with an environmental focus that have a level of interaction with the space they inhabit. She frequently uses wind, light and water to communicate energy and create movement. Ripples Catherine Widgery’s Ripples, © 2014; Terminal 1, Raleigh-Durham International Airport Ripples Terminal 1, Concourse To be Installed Early 2014 Glass and steel Ripples is a series of three photographs interpreted into a glass mosaic wall that separates the security checkpoint from the concourse. The installation is viewable from both sides and includes a patented process that allows the layers of glass comprising the images to appear as though they are moving as viewers pass by it. Widgery designed Ripples as a contemplative, soothing expanse that includes the ripple patterns of water created by raindrops and the reflection of trees and the sky above. The water drop patterns remind travelers of eternal rhythms and cycles. Martin Donlin A native of the United Kingdom, Martin Donlin is an experienced glass artist specializing in architectural works. He works with a wide range of glass, from antique mouth-blown to screen-printed ceramic enamels to subtle acid-etched and polished glass. His works can be found throughout town halls, hospitals and other public buildings in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany. In the United States, two of his large-scale works are on permanent display in the Indianapolis International Airport. Metamorphosis Martin Donlin’s Metamorphosis, © 2014; Terminal 1, Raleigh-Durham International Airport Metamorphosis Terminal 1, Security Checkpoint Entrance To Be Installed Early 2014 Glass Metamorphosis will be located on a two-story wall that frames the escalator and staircase between the ticketing and security checkpoint levels. This piece features bold imagery and colors combined with intricate details that include nature scenes, a map of the world and an abstract of a North Carolina road map. The work is meant to provide an immediate impact but also includes details to be discovered by repeat travelers. Gordon Huether The Airport Authority has commissioned California-based artist Gordon Huether to create an installation that will be suspended over the Terminal 1 Bag Claim Lobby when the building reopens in Spring 2014. In a career spanning 25 years, Heuther has created more than 50 public and 150 private art commissions. He has since dedicated his career solely to public art commissions and is widely known for Terminal 1 Tile Art incorporating glass into artwork that tells a story about the space Underground Pedestrian Walkway where the piece will reside. Drew and Linda Krouse, Robert Johnson September 2002 At RDU, Huether’s work will incorporate glass figures suspended over Clay tile the Bag Claim Lobby in actions mirroring scenes from an airport’s bag claim area, where travelers reconnect with loved ones, collect More than 2,500 tiles comprise the airport’s first collection and form six their luggage and prepare to continue to their final destinations. clay murals representing some of North Carolina’s most scenic destinations. Images represent the Neuse River, Mt. Mitchell, the Sandhills, Pea Island, the Eno River and the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Subtle environmental statements relating to noise, water and air pollution can be detected throughout the work. Additional Works Additional Drew and Linda Krouse, Robert Johnson’s Terminal 1 Tile Art, © 2002; Terminal 1, Raleigh-Durham International Airport Wright Brothers Commemorative Terrazzo Terminal 1, Ticketing Lobby Jack Toler Installed October 1955, To Be Rededicated March 2014 Terrazzo Since 1955, a six-foot-long terrazzo mosaic depicting the Wright Brother’s first flight has welcomed visitors into the airport’s first permanent terminal building. With plans for closure of that portion of the facility, the Airport Authority removed the artwork and repurposed it into a dedication plaque for the modernized Terminal 1. 1 in Terminal Mei-Ling Hom Working from her farm in upstate New York, Mei-Ling Hom is a public commission artist whose works often express her affinity with cultures that are under-represented in contemporary art. She enjoys crafting sculptures and large works of art that are poetic and fit a space in the best possible way. Arguably, her most famous piece is Singing Mountains Hanging Clouds, which was displayed at The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Other works are on display in the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles and the Philadelphia International Airport. Cloudscape Mei-Ling Hom’s Cloudscape, © 2010; Terminal 2, Raleigh-Durham International Airport Cloudscape Terminal 2, Gates D12–D13 Installed October 2010 Steel, hex netting, cabling Cloudscape suspends high above Concourse D and comprises about 50 intricate cloud formations. They are crafted from steel hex netting suspended by discreet cabling. The clouds vary in size from two to 20 feet and span the entire width of the concourse. Some touch the ceiling and others seem to hang in mid-air while a few dip to just 18 feet from the floor. Cloudscape is visible not only in the gate waiting areas below the sculpture, but also as one approaches the boarding areas on Concourse D. At night, Cloudscape is visible through the windows of the terminal, viewable by passengers in passing aircraft. The formation was designed by Hom to provide passengers with a contemplative space where they can daydream in anticipation of their next destination. The artist also describes the cloud formations as symbolic of voyaging beyond the horizon and ascending from the ground. Ellen Driscoll Ellen Driscoll is the head of the Sculpture Department at the Rhode Island School of Design. She is a multidisciplinary artist whose sculptures, paintings and other works explore the link between resource consumption and material usage. Driscoll has been awarded grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Council of the Arts and others. Many of her designs have been incorporated into public and private collections worldwide. Her public collections can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Whitney Museum of Art. Wingspun Ellen Driscoll’s Wingspun, © 2008; Terminal 2, Raleigh-Durham International Airport Wingspun Terminal 2, International Arrivals Corridor Above Concourse C Installed October 2008 Glass Comprising 165 individual glass panels and extending 780-feet along the international arrivals corridor, Wingspun overlooks Concourse C in Terminal 2. The piece provides visitors with a poetic set of coordinates to guide them upon their arrival to North Carolina. The design complements the rolling hills of the terminal roof and mimics the movement of a bird’s wing, as well as the interaction between the warp and weft in weaving, which is also a Terminal 2 design feature. A horizontal band traverses the mid-section of each glass panel and is a repeat pattern of a simple basket weave structure.