Client: Kansas City Police Department

Overview

With this piece, I was interested in challenging the typical assumption of how power is visualized and was interested in the potential to create a work that projects strength and fragility at the same time. Aesop’s story of the bundle of sticks was a starting point for the piece. In that story, a father teaches a lesson to his children that a single stick is easily broken, while a bundle of sticks proves to be unbreakable. In a similar fashion, my artwork articulates strength through a delicate articulation of separate tube elements that form a swept volume that people pass below as they move between adjacent buildings. As one passes through the connecting space, they can experience the installation as a powerful mass that is volumetric and atmospheric, yet delicate and fragile.

This hanging sculpture is located in the renovated Main Police Headquarters building in Kansas City, Mo. The silver and gold finished tubes are able to exist as both autonomous elements and as multiple parts that create a singular ceiling sculpture.

Goals

The piece is inspired by the apparent contradictory duality that police officers must balance between openness and engagement with the community while still carrying a sense of strength.

Process

This piece was conceived early in the overall building design phase. As a result, coordination between the architects (Helix Architects) and my studio afforded the ability to have a tightly integrated piece in the new community room for the Kansas City Police Department.