Client: Art in Public Places, City of Aurora, Cultural Services Division

Location: Aurora, CO, United States

Completion date: 2017

Artwork budget: $300,000

Project Team

Artist

Joe O'Connell

Creative Machines

Artist

Creative Machines

Creative Machines

Overview

Stories Interweave was inspired by the variety and diversity of languages spoken in Aurora with the goal of celebrating the connections between these groups through language. The skin of each sculpture is made up of different languages cut into steel and welded together to create three-dimensional lantern-like forms intermixing languages and stories.

Goals

Words typically tell stories when arranged in phrases and sentences, and the shapes of these sculptures will add additional narrative meaning to the phrases. Therefore, the piece will invite the viewer to visually move through the swarm of words and create new phrases or connections with each visit. During the day and night, intense point source LED lighting will cast intricate colored shadows around the hanging sculptures. During the day, the lighting will project into shadowed areas and at night it will project largely against the ceiling. The lighting automatically cycles through different colors over time. The colored shadows encourage visitors to move and pose within the colorful projections.

Process

We gathered phrases and stories from the local population and combined them to create a two-dimensional ‘word cloud’ pattern and to connect these groups in one piece that represents Aurora’s population.

Additional Information

Medium: stainless steel, LED lighting, acrylic / Dimensions: : 3’ 10” height x 5’ 4” diameter - 8 total pieces