Massive Public Art in Providence Destroyed By Arson — Located Outside Wexford
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
A massive public art sculpture was burned to the ground on early Monday morning.
This project was funded by The Avenue Concept and Wexford.
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Impact Everything posted to social media:
As we were driving to our coworking space at CIC, we were talking about how climate change has brought on recent covid 19 pandemic, tropical storms, harsher weather, etc. Just as we came across Steven Siegel's art piece at the entrance of CIC (225 Dyer St, Providence, RI), it was filled with ashes. Literally ashes..... Someone burned the art piece at 2 a.m. last night....[Monday]
It was heartbreaking to see as we had helped Bonnie Combs and Jen Long to collect single use plastic for the art piece at our store. They had spent hundreds of hours of cleaning each donated plastic through a sanitation rinse... with their bare hands....It is awful to see their hard work in ashes.
While working at CIC, we would often take a break at the benches next to the window eating lunch and watching different people see the art piece up close. Small kids with their parents admiring the art piece, or a couple who are just stunned by the size of it. It was more than an art piece, it gave hope and optimism to do better as a society when it came to issue single use plastic waste.
As a community, [sic] Providence we are better than this. If this happens here (one of the most liberal cities in the United States), it can happen anywhere. The current political atmosphere has created a turmoil in this country where bigotry, racism, inequality, climate injustices, etc. has a stronger voice than ever before. If someone thinks it is a good idea to burn the art piece, and we will stay quiet, THEY ARE WRONG. We as a community have to replace this with a BIGGER and STRONGER art piece as soon as possible. Our voices can not be suppressed. Impact everything will help whatever we can to replace or recreate another art piece as soon as possible in coordination with the Avenue Concept.
ABOUT THE ART:
Steven Siegel is a world-renowned American sculptor working in the studio and public realm. He is deeply engaged with the natural world. Both geology and biology influence his practice and his interest in the earth and life sciences inspire the artworks’ forms, compositions, and choice of materials.
Both signature public art series—the Layerings, landform works made of newspaper and the Containers, stand-alone vessels such as Like a buoy, like a barrel on the plaza—always use an accumulation of many small, humble objects to create one unified whole.
That iterative process that Siegel employs in his sculpture creation minics many natural processes all around us, from the cells and systems that make up our bodies to the layers that make up our earth. When the mundane material used is single-use plastic, what sort of questions can we ask about ourselves, our consumption, or the way we view the everyday objects populating our lives.
THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED 8/10/20 2:02 PM
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- Massive Public Art in Providence Destroyed By Arson — Located Outside Wexford