people, places, things

Sprinting Figures

A one-year installation created for commuters stuck in rush-hour traffic. The contrast of the daily commute and the annual rhythm of a deciduous woodland was dramatized by placing five running stick figures, made of scaled-down concrete highway barriers, among the trees alongside the expressway. Traffic jams along this stretch focused the meaning of the concrete figures while the title simultaneously referred to the escalating flight of city-dwellers to the suburbs. The fifty barriers were installed among the trees in summer, hidden from passing cars by the tree canopy, then slowly revealed as the leaves left the trees. In spring, the foliage gradually hid the work again and it was removed. Viewed on foot, the roar of passing vehicles became a sonic counterpoint to the quiet woodland. With the cooperation of the Gladwyne Town Council and the Board of Supervisors of Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. Supported by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Andy Warhol Foundation.