Short North art installation rethinks construction

Isabel Hall
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 02:09:45 +0000
Arts & Life, News, Columbus College of Arts and Design, construction, sculptures, short north, short north alliance, Shortpop, The Cap on Goodale

The second of the ShortPop installations by Boram-Hays, titled “Erosion.” Courtesy of Short North Alliance.

Orange barrels and cones are typically only used in construction projects, but a local artist has found a way to mold them into sculptures.

Carol Boram-Hays, an assistant professor at Columbus College of Arts and Design, was commissioned by the Short North Alliance — a nonprofit organization serving to better the Short North Arts District — to create two sculptures for the temporary public art sculpture program ShortPop.

The two pieces Boram-Hays sculpted are “Cascades” and “Erosion.” Boram-Hays said she typically draws influence from the natural world around her, which was reflected in her sculptures for ShortPop.

“A lot of my work revolves around human interaction with nature and how the two have become infused,” Boram-Hays said. “It was a good opportunity to reflect on changes in the Short North with construction going on, how forces of nature change landscape and how man impacts nature and the changes going on in the landscape.”

While Boram-Hays has worked with construction materials in the past, she said she found the task of creating sculptures from construction barrels to be “an interesting challenge.”

“I typically work with a lot of construction material like cement, metal or things like that. I’ve never worked with these materials — particularly plastics and construction cones,” Boram-Hayes said. “I didn’t know how these materials would behave in a sculpture context.”

According to Betsy Pandora, the executive director of the Short North Alliance, the nonprofit has been working with community partners and local businesses to beautify the district amid construction. ShortPop was created to bring art into areas that were considered lackluster and allow the public to see construction materials in a new way.

“With so many of the construction materials throughout the district, we thought it would be powerful to give the materials to an artist who sees them in a different way,” Pandora said. “We think this is a really fun experiment.”

“Cascades” is located at Greenwood Park and “Erosion” is located at The Cap on Goodale. Both sculptures are currently installed and will be on display until October 31.