PUBLIC ARTWORK

 

East Meets West, Uptown, Chicago IL 2014

Painted Non-woven Media, Glass Tile Mosaic, and Ceramic Bricolage

Assisting Artists: Julia Sowles-Barlow, Lyndsey Marko, and Joann Liu

East Meets West is a mixed media artwork that suggests a flowing harmony between the diverse cultures that enliven “Asia on Argyle” in Uptown. Dragonflies, water, bamboo, flowers, and the mandala are important symbols rich with meaning, found in both Asian and Western cultures and across many spiritual traditions. Contained within the center is a map of the area, which also resembles a ladder of aspiration. This community project involved significant neighborhood involvement in the mural’s design and execution.

The project was sponsored by Uptown United/ Uptown SSA#34, LISC, and PNC Bank

Special thanks to Josephine Luk and FLATS Chicago

Hamilton Elementary School, Chicago, IL 2011

Glass and Ceramic Tile Mosaic and Ceramic Bricolage

Assisting Artists: Julia Sowles-Barlow

The mosaics at Hamilton Elementary consists of three different parts, all created with the collaboration of 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students who attended the school and volunteer mothers in the community. The purpose of the project was to emphasize collaboration, shared skills in design, critique, professional artistic skills, and sustaining a project for a long period of time.

The first set of mosaics consists of large tiled columns on either side of the entrance to the school using a combination of imagery and text that reads “We grow when we learn, play, dance, sing” and “We learn when we think, help each other, create the future.”

The second set of mosaics consists of flower insets on the east side of the school that are filled with ceramic tile background colors and elements relating to nature and gardens.

The third set of mosaics consists of large sunbursts of handmade sculptures, ceramic, and mirrored tile. The students created many of the elements for this piece, which was then collaged on the stone wall of the building on either side of the entrance.

Calming/Calling/Cooling, Chicago, IL 2011

Painted decals on recycled refrigerator

Calming/Calling/Cooling was a temporary public art installation to create awareness about energy consumption and the impact of recycling old appliances for new ones. Ginny’s contribution consisted of a large old refrigerator which was converted into a sculptural piece covered in decals of images of native plants to Illinois that are wrapped organically around the four sides of the fridge. Ginny then infused poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay introduced to her by her nature-loving aunt and attached her photo to the handle of the piece. At the very top of the fridge, names of goddesses from various world cultures that were/are nature identified form a spiral, completing the abundant symbolism the refrigerator is intended to display. The piece in its entirety was meant to inspire action via the heart by rendering and revering what we will be saving by our recycling efforts: our very life support system.

The poem reads:

I will be the gladdest thing

Under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

And not pick one.

Arc of Nature, Openlands Ft. Sheridan Bridge 2008

Painted Non-woven Media, Glass Tile Mosaic, and Aluminum

Co-lead Artist: Augustina Droze, Assisting Artists: Julia Sowles-Barlow and Jim Brenner

Arc of Nature acts as a gateway to the ravine walk, creating a poetic evocation of a nature experience rather than a didactic explanation of what is to be seen. Using Openland’s position paper on the restoration goals of the ravine as a point of conceptual influence, the piece acknowledges that participants will be coming from diverse backgrounds and can have many possible experiences in/of nature.

The imagery in the mural includes a variety of dualities in nature at the physical and spiritual level. Each element in the piece highlights natural reoccurring structures and patterns on the micro and macro scale. Examples of this include an atomic structure that is surrounded by the shape of a symmetrically formed flower blossom, a map of our solar system within huge tree rings, and painted glass mosaic pollen spores mutating into constellations and mathematical shapes. Large aluminum arcs emerge from the piece, representing lines of latitude and longitude as well as the graph of the origin of the universe. The overall color palette of the mural adds a meditative quality to the imagery and allows it to syncopate with the inspiring nature around it.

The project was sponsored by Openlands and Chicago Public Art Group

Cool Globes, Grant Park, Chicago, IL 2007

Mosaic and Mixed Media

Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet, was a series of public art exhibitions to raise awareness for climate change. In the summer of 2007, the project premiered in Chicago’s Grant Park, consisting of a variety of globes commissioned by artists that display a vast array of solutions to climate change. 

Ginny Sykes’s contribution to this collective exhibition was titled “Water Efficiency: World on Fire.” The concept for this “Cool Globes” design utilized a bicycle wheel, small windmill/fans, ceramic water drops, gas pumps, and plastic connector tubes. The bicycle wheel was mounted to the very top of the globe, alluding to the positive effect bicycling has over driving and how it could potentially help cool the earth. The changing wind patterns from the nearby lake are meant to activate the spinning of the bicycle wheel and smaller windmill/fans referencing the importance of wind energy to prevent global warming. On every side of the globe, there were ceramic water drops within concentric circles which showed the effect of a single drop of water on the environment, each water drop size relating to the actual recorded rainfall over the last one hundred years. The size of the corresponding concentric circles showed the metamorphic effect of the single drop of water and the human impact that created a ripple effect and changed the recorded rainfall. The connecting colored plastic tubes linked each area of the mosaic globe, alluding to the simulation of changing wind patterns that have created the volatile weather conditions the planet is experiencing, and emphasizes the interconnectivity across continents.

Margate Park, Chicago, IL 2004

A team of artists came together to design a playground that was an relaxing and interesting space for both children and adults. Jim Brenner created a swarm of steel butterflies, along with bees and dragonflies. By the pond, Roman Villareal created a series of limestone turtle and frog sculptures. Ginny Sykes led a team of volunteers in the fabrication of mosaic elements for a large circular bench.

The project was sponsored by Chicago Public Art Group, Chicago Park District, and Smith Group JJR

On the Wings of Water, O’Hare International Airport 2004

Glass Tile Mosaic and Porcelain Tile Mural

Created with assisting artists: Maria Gaspar and Sonata Kazimieratiene

On the Wings of Water uses water as a unifying element, presenting many different possibilities for interpretation of the piece. As an international theme, it becomes a connecting tissue, literally linking us across cities, countries, and continents, and metaphorically acting as a symbol of rebirth and rejuvenation. It is used in ritual and ceremony both publicly and privately throughout many cultures and throughout time. Water forms most of our corporeal content and is essential for all living things.

The work begins with two fragments of overlapping puzzle pieces and pools of water. A ceramic drop is falling into the larger pool creating a rippling effect. The water moves behind a large orchid and three allium bulbs to a long distance perspective of a mountainous landscape and a figure of a girl with a telescope. The girl becomes a protagonist for the transformations that proceed; waves metamorphisize into birds and back into puzzle pieces.

The project was sponsored by the Macquarie Corporation, Chicago Public Art Group, and the Department of Aviation, O’Hare Airport, and was fabricated with assistance of youth apprentices from Chicago’s After School Matters program.

Levy Center, Evanston, IL 2004

Glass Tile Mosaic

Created with assisting artists: Julia Sowles-Barlow, Maria Gaspar, Thuong Pham, and Yen Luu

The mosaics are of native flowers that have medicinal value, either contemporaneously or through native and folklore culture. In addition to their healing properties, each flower was chosen for their visual variety in shape, color, and seasonal blooming cycles. The vibrant colors of the piece were specifically designed to be visible and legible from a distance, allowing those with diminishing visual acuity to enjoy its composition. The floral mosaic collection is meant to enhance the garden space, providing vibrant color and an implication of blooming year round, even during the winter months.

Left Panel: Jack in the Pulpit, Michigan Lily, Dayflower, Yellow Lady Slipper, Virginia Bluebells

Right Panel: Spring Beauty, Aster, Spatterdock, Indian Paintbrush, Wild Garlic, Dutchman’s Breeches

The project was sponsored by Hulda B. and Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation and Chicago Public Art Group

RORA, Erie Terraces 1999

Glass Tile Mosaic

RORA was titled after the Potowotami Native American word meaning confluence, to describe the area of geographic importance that later became the Chicago River.

The upper level of the piece is meant to reflect the geographical and ecological characteristics of the region surrounding the Chicago River area and European settlement. It is divided into six main panels, all describing a different ecosystem that has existed in this geographical location. From left to right the panels depict cold floodland, wet prairie, sedge meadow, wooded bog, moraine, and lake/dunal areas. The overall feeling suggests a calm, playful, organic quality that is restful and contemplative, contrasting sharply with the lower level.

The lower level reflects the dynamism of change to the area once commerce, trade, traffic, and other competing interests began to dominate the river’s usage and Chicago’s greater development as a large industrial city. The imagery includes fragments of bridges, transportation parts, and wheels, all colliding with a vertical image of the river.

There are multiple overlappings and abstractions of themes which create a playful and dynamic circle of moving energy, suggesting a birthing process or source point for the river. It was important to me that the tile work be explosive, creative, playful, and engaging, and act as a metaphor for Chicago’s continued growth and change.

The project was co-sponsored by The Chicago Department of Transportation, The Department of Planning, The Department of Cultural Affairs, and Chicago Public Art Group.