Stone Maidens by Eugenio Pedon

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The metal placard on the base of this sculpture identifies it as Stone Maidens, but this is an incomplete sculpture. There should be three figures here instead of just two, and there are multiple titles for the grouping. These two individual figures are titled Navigation and Enlightenment. The Smithsonian Institute keeps an inventory of public artwork, and they list this piece by four different titles: Navigation, Enlightenment, Stone Maidens, Ladies of Stone, and Stone Ladies. Whatever you call it, it is two thirds of a sculpture originally created to top the Federal Building (which became the Post Office building) downtown in 1889. Rescued from demolition in 1966 this duo now grace the entrance to the Children’s Museum at the corner of W. Commons.

There were actually two identical sculptures that topped the old post office. The six individual figures from those two sculptures were all saved, but they were divided and spread out around the city. Why they were separated we don’t know, but the third figure in the grouping (Industry) is now at Station Square. In fact you can find Industry by itself, and Industry along with the second copy of Navigation, at two locations in Station Square.

The description in the Smithsonian inventory has the seated figure (Navigation) holding a rudder and the standing figure (Enlightenment) holding a lamp. When we look at Enlightenment, we think there is something missing from her raised arm, (perhaps a torch?), but since it appears that she has the lamp (or lantern) in her other hand we really don't know what else she might have been holding. We have been unable to locate a photo of the original trio before they were damaged. The other copy of Enlightenment is currently up on Mt Washington, and her raised arm is completely broken off on that copy.

The figures appear to be out of proportion because they were designed to be viewed standing on the street looking up at the Post Office roof.

The sculpture is part of the artifacts collection of the Pgh History and Landmarks Foundation.

Manchester Youth & Development Center mural

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This mural lines the walkway into the Manchester Youth and Development Center (MYDC) and the Manchester Academic Charter School (MACS). The MYDC has been around since 1968 and their website explains their mission:

MYDC seeks to replace negative behaviors with positive goals, through mobilizing families from the community to participate in the development of the youth. The Center recognizes that being problem–free is not the same as being fully prepared and thus focuses on the development of the whole child to become productive and engaged citizens. MYDC’s programs promote the development of children who are healthy, safe, engaged in learning, supported by qualified and caring adults, and challenged by a well–balanced curriculum. Effective programs are youth centered. Staff and activities engage young people’s diverse talents, skills, and interest, building on their strengths and involving them in planning and decision making.

Seeking Joy mural by Cathy Pelusi Art Studio students

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Faith, Hope and Love. Those are the messages tied to Seeking Joy, a mural inspired and modeled after Les Iris by Van Gogh. This mural was done by the students of the Holy Family Institute’s Cathy Pelusi Art Studio and donated to Common Ministries on Brighton Road.

This mural and it’s message are so important. Common Ministries operates the largest food pantry in the area and serves the needs of many of the area’s homeless. A few days before they unveiled the mural, students and teachers worked on adding the garden boxes with the written message of what they wanted the mural to represent. For the students this was all about giving back to the community. For the community it's a wonderful addition to the landscape and a bright spot in everyone’s lives.

The list of artists (students, teachers and assistants) is long, but each one deserves credit for this:
Copied directly from the One Voice art newsletter from 16 Oct 2012

FADED-BLUE, CRYSTAL-BLACK, CRYSTAL-RED, MR. BIKIM/AmeriCorps, CRYSTAL-GOLD, STAR-GOLD, AMETHYST, BABY-BLUE, ORCHID, HOT- PINK, MISS VERONICA/Seton Staff, JOVANNA/Volunteer, MR. DAVID D. DiMichele/International College Preparatory Program, MISS ALYSSA/AmeriCorps, SUMMER-GREEN, TRUE-RED,PURPLE-BLACK, MR. DAVID A. DIMICHELE/Spiritual Director, MARINE-BLUE, MIDNIGHT-BLUE, BRIGHT ORANGE, DEEPEST-BLUE, GREEN, DYLAN, LAUREN, and MS. AMY DIMICHELE/Art Instructor

A Garden Garage Window mural by Ben Schneider

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We noticed this panel at the back of what we assumed was another community garden. The owner came by though, and told us it was her lot and that a friend of her son’s had painted that for her.

Update:
Feb 2014
The mural is no longer there. The window on the small garage has been replaced.

House Permutation by Wole Soyinka and multiple artists

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The second of the City of Asylum's "House Publishings".  House Permutaion is also known as Winged House, and includes three separate pieces of art by four different artists that are all interconnected.

Wole Soyinka was the artist in residence here and it is an excerpt from his book The Man Died that's etched into the glass door in his own handwriting.  He is a Nigerian poet and playwright who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1986.   The Man Died are notes from the 22 months he spent in prison due to his political activism.  The following is the inscription from the door:

I had newly discovered the world of numbers. Once the first breakthrough was over I began with increasing rapidity to rediscover one mathematical formula after another. Part investigation, part titanic excavation from the murky burial-ground of the labours of long-suffering teachers I tackled one idea after another, testing and re-testing the achieved formula by the most simplistic count-by-count systems. I had TIME! Often I woke up in the morning to a problem and one minute later literally one minute later the guard was tapping on the door to signal lock-up hour. I DESTROYED time. Once I wrote out all the possible combinations of six digits. In the process I uncovered the only way that this could be done to ensure, at a glance, that there was neither duplication nor omission. The result was so obviously a plan for computed aesthetics that I ruled out squares on toilet paper and proceeded to repeat those combinations with colored squares.(Green from leaf juice, black from my ink — christened Soy-ink — and toilet paper white.) The cyclic continuum of the result next made an impression. I joined one end of the toilet paper to the other and asked, Now what have I got? It had a strong resemblance to symbols made by computers. Now how on earth do computers function anyway?

Behind the glass on the door you can just make out a mosaic.

Artists Laura Jean McLaughlin and Bob Ziller (with some help from the Mattress Factory's art lab) created this mosaic to represent the 720 combinations of 6 colors from the passage on the door.

Sculptor Thadius Mosely was commissioned to create the beautiful carved wings on the front of the building.  Spiritual Wings were inspired from Mr Soyinka's passage. Sampsonia Way magazine quoted the artist as saying: I wanted to do something to give the house wings, something with an air of spirituality. When you read the work of these writers, you can see the joy, spirit and idea of personal freedom. I wanted to reflect that.

Cloud Arbor by Ned Kahn

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We have a few sculptures around the city that are considered interactive. We also have some misting stations here and there to cool people off. In Buhl Community Park on the Northside though, we have melding of the ideas: A sculpture that creates a cloud. You can run through it like a water feature (like at PPG plaza); stand and wait for the cloud to wash over you; or stand back and watch the cloud form and float off.

Viewing the sculpture is a lot like watching the clouds roll by in a blue sky. You see it take shape and watch that shape change and morph with the wind, eventually dissipating. Every few minutes the cycle begins anew. There’s always something relaxing – almost hypnotic – about watching a water feature, and no less so when the water is vaporized.

Cloud Arbor was commissioned by the Children’s Museum to be a focal point in the revitalization of nearby Buhl Community Park. Funded by The Charity Randall Foundation, the sculpture is one of many pieces of artwork added to the Northside through the efforts of the Children’s Museum.

We found an article for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette by Kaitlynn Reily where artist Ned Kahn is quoted as saying If you step back and look at it, it’s incredibly beautiful and interesting. I feel the same way about clouds, and I just want to call people’s attention to it. He also said It demonstrates the swirling emotion of things we cannot see. It makes them visible.

The artwork is constructed with 64 poles that contain high pressure nozzles. Within the framework of the 32 foot tall poles, a cloud approximately 20 feet across will form. As the wind shapes and moves the cloud across the park some just watch the transformation, and some literally immerse themselves in it, taking advantage of the cool mist on a hot day.

On Ned Kahn’s website he makes this statement:

The confluence of science and art has fascinated me throughout my career. For the last twenty years, I have developed a body of work inspired by atmospheric physics, geology, astronomy and fluid motion. I strive to create artworks that enable viewers to observe and interact with natural processes. I am less interested in creating an alternative reality than I am in capturing, through my art, the mysteriousness of the world around us.

My artworks frequently incorporate flowing water, fog, sand and light to create complex and continually changing systems. Many of these works can be seen as observatories in that they frame and enhance our perception of natural phenomena. I am intrigued with the way patterns can emerge when things flow. These patterns are not static objects, they are patterns of behavior – recurring themes in nature.

Some details:

• -64 stainless steel 32 foot /3”diameter poles – 24 of them with nozzles
• -high pressure nozzles create vapor at 1000psi to form a cloud at regular intervals
• -4 poles with 18 nozzles ea
• -8 poles with 24 nozzles ea
• -12 poles with 22 nozzles ea
• -total of 528 nozzles
• -poles angled slightly inward to create the cloud effect
• -originally set to run 15 sec every 10 minutes

According to the artist, when the wind conditions are calm, the fog nozzles sculpt a spherical cloud, spinning and rising in the winter and spinning and falling in the summer. As the wind picks up, the spherical shape becomes distorted. The intent is to create a porous environment that merges with the atmosphere, blurring the boundary between atmosphere and architecture.

Articulated Cloud by Ned Kahn

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Ned Kahn is a California artist that specializes in combining art and science.  He uses the natural elements of earth, wind, water, and fire to create moving, almost living sculptures.  We have two of his pieces right across from each other.  One works with wind and the other is an interactive piece using wind and water.  More of his work is inside the Children's Museum.

The Children’s Museum has done a lot to promote art throughout the Northside neighborhoods. Their Charm Bracelet Project reaches up into Spring Hill and down to the Northshore.  Surrounding the actual museum though, there is a tremendous concentration of artwork – both old and new.   In the parking lot they have salvaged bits of wonderful architecture from some of the area’s old buildings.   Part of the museum is located in the historic Old Post Office with the beautiful dome.  At the same time they have commissioned very new, modern, interactive sculptures all around. One of those sculptures happens to be integrated into another of the buildings making up the museum.

If you aren’t paying attention you might not realize that the structure above the entrance is encased in a work of art. If you don’t pause and look up you might miss the small panels fluctuating in the breeze.

The facade of the building, done in collaboration with the architect (Koning/Eizenberg), is an aluminum frame with thousands of translucent, white plastic squares that move with the wind.  According to the artist's website, “the artwork is intended to suggest that the building has been enveloped by a digitized cloud”, making the wind visible.  The optical qualities of the material make the appearance change in different lighting and weather conditions.





This is Articulated Cloud by Ned Kahn. 43,000 small, hinged, polycarbonate panels are attached to a steel frame so that they can each move individually with the wind.

 


The effect can be quite subtle, requiring your attention to even notice the movement.


This is one of several sculptures surrounding the Children’s Museum that use wind to come to life. Next time you’re there, make sure you take a minute to look around outside the buildings and catch the artwork in motion.

Re-CARstruction by Keny Marshal

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This is pretty much what it looks like.  The artist took a Jeep Grand Wagoneer donated by Theresa Heinz, cut it up and reshaped it into this ball of car parts.  There are two You Tube videos on this. One that shows the car being taken apart, and one showing it being turned into this sculpture.

First Historic District by Glenn Olcerst

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The lawyer and fine art photographer that lives here feels strongly about public art.  He established "Art in the Alley" along this road to encourage others to create public art here.  The first significant addition is this mosaic/inlay by Mr Olcerst himself. 

Made of over 2100 pieces of hand cut granite and porcelain, it depicts very early architecture.  The design is based on photographs taken at a church in Tulia, Italy. 

Some close-ups to show details:

Steel Giraffe by Tim Kaulen

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Tim Kaulen has a history of recycling material in his art.  If anyone's been to the Carrie Furnaces in Rankin – or seen pictures of the Carrie Deer – then you've seen some of his work.  He was one of the group of artists that scavenged around the old mill site and created a huge deer head out of the scraps left behind when they closed the mill.

Here, Tim Kaulen has used recycled steel and some vegetation to create a giant child's pull toy.

River of Words by Israel Centeno

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Israel Centeno (Venezuela) is a writer-in-residence at City of Asylum, having arrived in 2011. He is the author of poetry, short stories, and ten novels.

He worked on the River of Words, (2014) a public art installation within the Mexican War Streets. He chose 100 words, relevant in some way to Pittsburgh. Neighbors were invited to host a “word in residence," meaning that they would display a representation of their word (designed by Venezuelan artists Carolina Arnal and Gisela Romero), on the wall, or door, or window of their houses. River of Words was wildly popular. Residents excitedly selected and suggested words that they wanted to display.  If you walk the streets around Sampsonia Way, you can still spot some of the words. Some of them are bold; some inconspicuous; some stenciled on garage doors or sitting above garden gates.

The words, in Spanish and English, are references to poetry, literature, and the Pittsburgh physical and cultural landscape. For example, the names of our three rivers were included, as well as words like “zombies”.  The words are made from laser-cut acrylic, vinyl letters, or even chalk.


All of the words were supposed to be removed in Dec 2014, but residents have been petitioning the Historic Review Commission to keep them.  The residents that hosted a word chose one that had significance for them and they didn't want to give them up when the "temporary" art installation officially closed.  Almost half the homes hosting a word were within the historic district, which made keeping them somewhat controversial.

River of Words was so much more than a temporary art installation.  It's become a focal point in the debate about expanding the historic district and the role of public art in an historic district.  It's beamed some light on the restrictions to modifications of these historic homes.  Do the restrictions conflict with “free speech” and is this a class issue?  It has really brought the discussion of public art and what it means to people to the forefront.  Some homeowners decided that they did not want to become a part of the historic district because they would most likely be denied the public art option.

The project also included a drawing along Sampsonia Way, using lines and words to connect the homes along the street. “Human beings make contact with each other through the exchange of energy, affection, and knowledge,” the artists noted in their project proposal. “We’ll use words and sentences as links between houses” to create a visual array of connections and relationships.  We were there the day the city showed up to sandblast the array of words and phrases off the asphalt.  It was kind of sad to see it destroyed.

In addition to words, several community members hosted entire poems and portraits of poets on the facades of their homes.  So far these have not been removed.
 

Buhl Building Relief Sculptures by Sidney Waugh

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The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science opened in this building in 1939.  It was a big deal.  This was only the 5th planetarium to open in the country and the first one to install a state of the art, professional quality telescope for other than professionals use.  One of the first science museums (as opposed to the museums of natural history), this facility was built for everyone.  On the outside of the limestone structure,  Sidney Waugh created 6 relief sculptures.

Day: On the east side of the building, above a door is a small relief of a woman holding a bird.  The bird was considered a symbol of dawn.

Night: The same size as day, this image of a sleeping woman is almost hidden these days.  Because of the expansion of the Children's Museum, you need to walk all the way around to the back past the walkway to the main entrance to find it.

 The Heavens: This relief includes images portraying the sun, wind, rain and lightening.

The Earth: The plants here represent the carboniferous age plants which created the area's coal deposits.  The hammer is specifically a geologist's hammer.

There are two bronze relief images with gold leaf located over what used to be the main doors to the Buhl Planetarium.  They were meant to compare two eras of science and show tools of the trade then and now.

Primitive Science: This is represented by a Native American from the Mingo Tribe.  He is depicted with fire for smoke signals to show long distance communications; snowshoes (which were specific to North America), medicinal plants, bow and arrow, and a tree to represent the primeval forest.

 Modern Science: This relief shows what were modern tools at the time: a cathode-ray tube, microscope (for biology), globe (for geography), and laboratory beakers (for chemistry).

Mr Waugh may be best known for his work as chief designer for Steuben Glass for three decades, but the MIT graduate also did impressive public sculptures in several major cities.