Bringing Art Back To Life

Here's a story I've been meaning to share for a couple of weeks, I just keep forgetting about it. Back when we first installed the giant cube called Pulse (which has been well-shared here on the blog), there was another piece of art nearby that caught my eye. I took a picture of that one the day after our install (above). It's called American Dreams, and it's by Gillian Christy, an artist up in Rhode Island. You may not know who she is, but you've perhaps seen her work on NFL Today on CBS and The Apprentice on NBC.

So, fast forward a week or two into the exhibition. I'm down there shooting the cube again, and I see a news crew gathered around that other piece of sculpture. As soon as they clear, I wander over and discover what you see in the picture above. Some vandals had climbed up on the piece and pushed it over. Note that the part hasn't rolled over, it's actually been bent where the rolled part changes into the soaring section. It's hard to soar when you're lying on the ground like this. So after I saw what had happened, I got on the phone and contacted the artist we had worked with on Pulse. She put us in touch with the director of Sarasota Season of Sculpture 4. She in turn put us in contact with Gillian up in Rhode Island. We offered our services to try and repair her sculpture without returning it to her studio. She agreed to let us try, and we spent a few nights putting the piece back together. Our first attempt revealed that there was more damage than just what was visible. Many sections were flexed in the crash, and the sculpture was no longer able to support itself. But a second series of repairs finally did the trick.

It took a few weeks of work to arrange the equipment necessary for the re-install, but we finally got all of our ducks in a row. This last picture shows American Dreams after we repaired and re-installed it. To my eye, it looks pretty close to the same as it did originally. Now if the vandals will just stay away from it, we'll be all right.