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Matthew Geller
Open Channel Flow
2009
19m x 10m x 14m
steel, water, hand-pump, light
beacons
Sabine Water Pump Station and Buffalo Bayou Park,
Houston, Texas, USA
By
using the hand-pump one can experience a refreshing “shower”
as water rains down from the showerhead 7.5 meters above.
Simultaneously amber and blue beacons on top of the 19-meter
structure flash, signaling people as far away as downtown
Houston.
I'm particularly drawn
to overlooked or underutilized environments, from private
imaginary worlds within brick walls, to back alleys, to very
public sprawling open spaces. Whether the work takes the form
of public art, sculpture, installation, or video, it is in
these environments that I tease out small fragments of
narrative by augmenting or amplifying the raw materials of a
given place. I ask the viewer to engage both with what was
always there as well as what might be.
My
public art works are playful, humorous, unexpected and
accessible. They have an ability to engage a broad cross
section of the public, often in situations of unusual
intimacy. The works, which offer a seductive invitation to
participate, support the notion that public art can build
community and have a broad appeal without being what is most
familiar.
In
addition, I approach public art opportunities with the notion
of making the site more congenial and communal for those who
use it. I incorporate motion and change, and have elements
that foster engagement both with the work and among the
viewers themselves. The site always influences the structure
and the materials such that the site itself becomes an element
of the work.
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