Installation by Pneuhaus, LLC, consists of two Chromatic Lattices (warm and cool) in the building lobbies, as well as two CMY Windows in the 2nd floor lactation rooms.
From the artists:
The Chromatic Lattice is a sculpture exploring the intersection of color,
geometry and perception. Composed of thousands of interlocking pieces
that make up a unified whole, it is designed to reflect both the services
that BHDDH provides as well as the people that it serves.
While there are thousands of individual parts, there are only four distinct
colors that make up the piece: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Red. When
tiled together, the repeating pattern creates a multi-layered mirage of
color that appears different from every angle. The resulting geometry
resembles the atomic structure diamond. As you walk around the
sculpture, different combinations of the colors are visible through the
geometry of the lattice, producing subtle shifts in the overall color that
you perceive.
Creating a physical mirage of color that morphs as the viewer moves
around the Lattice, allowing the viewer to experience a dazzling optical
effect. The form stands as a poetic parallel to communities, workplaces,
and governments. The Lattice’s strength is distributed through all of its
parts as each intersecting strut both supports and is supported by the
rest. A celebration of the power of collaboration and community.
Fabrication
Each sculpture is composed of 23,000 3D-printed nodes connected
by 44,000 pieces of colored tubing. The modular nature of the piece
itself was intended to engage the BHDDH community, by utilizing the
employment programs BHDDH facilitates. Artists from Rhode Island
participated in the fabrication of the artworks.
The nodes were printed at our studio in Rumford, Rhode Island over
six weeks. Once they were ready we began the tedious process of
connecting the 134,000 components. This involved hiring participants in
the BHDDH affiliated employment programs to come to the studio and
operate custom presses made specifically for pressing the tubes on to
the nodes. The parts we combined in strips, then sheet, and the sheets
were stacked to make the complete lattices.
Coordination
Back in August 2020, we reached out to Jay Mackay at BHDDH
introducing ourselves and our proposal for the lobby of the newly
renovated BHDDH buildings. Under state law, a program called Percent
for Art puts 1% of project costs for state buildings to fund and install
public art for the new construction. We explained that our concept was
to make an intricate color lattice structure built by people BHDDH
serves, and we asked if there was any information he could tell us about
the process of hiring people through BHDDH employment programs that
were listed on their website.
In Jay’s words: “I was thrilled since this combines my two passions:
Supported Employment for those with Developmental Disabilities and
being part of the Rhode Island Art scene. After a lengthy process, the
committee selected the proposal from the art studio of Pneuhaus, LLC.
Ruth Feder from BHDDH was instrumental in emphasizing that the piece
reflects both the services BHDDH provides, and the people it serves,
envisioning working with people in employment and/or art programs to
fabricate the piece.”
The next step was to test if our fabrication idea would work. We sent out
sample kits of the tubing and nodes for interested artists to assemble
and received good feedback. On Wednesday March 9, 2022, there was an
organized visit to Pneuhaus for two artists from The Flying Shuttle Studio
(ARC of Blackstone) and two artists from The Artist’s Exchange
(GateWays to Change) who were interested in participating in the public
sculpture project at the studio in Rumford.
We presented our proposal to give them an idea of what the final piece
would look like, then showed the artists custom machines we had made
to make the assembly go faster. The Four Artists were invited to start
working the following week for 15 dollars an hour. We created a sign-up
schedule and Ryan, JR, Damon and Paul assembled thousands of
connections over the following weeks.
Special thanks to Artists Paul Almeida, Lement “JR” Banton, Ryan Ferreria, and Damon Mahan for their help fabricating. Artists’ Exchange, Flying Shuttles of the Arc of Blackstone Valley, and BHDDH Statewide Workforce Initiative for their partnership. Ruthie Feder, Jay Mckay, Shannon Casey, and Nancy Tumidajski for their instrumental help coordinating artists to help with fabrication.
Molly Dickinson and John Couture for facilitating permitting and coordinating with the state.
https://www.pneu.haus/
