Parenthesis
PARENTHESIS
Midwest Express Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1998
Dimensions:
H 75’x 40’ Diameter (H. 22.8 x 12.2 Ø meters)
Materials:
Aluminum, Resin, Vermeil, Mirror, Terrazzo, Paint, Brass, and Gold.
Site Description:
The entrance atrium of a multi-purpose civil building in downtown Milwaukee.
Parenthesis places the viewer in a dynamic relationship at the epicenter of several elements, which indicate and question qualities of time, place, scale and relationship to forces that affect us all.
Two spirals, one forming the terrazzo floor, the other suspended overhead, create a double cone focused on the brass image of Wisconsin at the center point of the floor. A mirror set into the central cone catches one reflection, grasping one moment of one life.
Outside the closed system of the double spirals is suspended the Enigma, a large levitated boulder with a dark interior void, revealing a cosmos within to those viewing from below. It is suggestive of all that is outside our capacity for understanding.
The Midwest Express Center is in many ways a universal place, an environment that will always be remaking itself into something else.
Parenthesis is dedicated to the essential contemplation of time and place, origin and the ephemeral quality of ever attempting knowing all.
Elements
The Helix is the prominent central element: an expanding black and white spiral suspended from the height of the rotunda 20’ (6.1 m) above the floor. It measures 55’ (17 m) in vertical height, and spirals out to 30’ (9 m) in diameter.
The Infinity, suspended just above The Helix, is a perforated, black parabolic disc.
The Vector is a faceted aluminum cone, gilded on all twelve sides 55’ (17 m) long and 3’ (0.9 m) in diameter. Looking up from below, the observer standing near The Locus is reflected in the mirror inserted in the base of the cone.
The Locus depicts the image of Wisconsin in a brass disc at the epicenter of The Vortex.
The Vortex is an epoxy matrix terrazzo floor drawn in a double spiral with brass inlay. The central inner circle diameter is 40’ (12 m).
The Enigma is a suspended rock in the form of a large bell, having a dark interior perforated with holes to emit light that reveals a cosmos within. The lower rim is gold leafed. The Enigma measures 9’ x 4.5’ Ø (2.7 x 1.4 Ø m).
Video
parenthesis 2’32”
installing parenthesis 5’30”