The location was a large tract of abandoned industrial
land spanning between 12th street (Roosevelt Road) all the way south to
18th street, with the east-west borders being Clark street and the east
shore of the Chicago river. Inside this stretch were huge concrete embakments,
overgrown with trees, and elevated railroad butress, huge mechanical raised
railway bridges, and desolation right downtown for as far as the eye could
see, until you look high and saw the Sears Tower. This view is from driving
across the 18th st. bridge looking north.
In this photo, you can see Kevin standing, appearing as a small white speck on the lower right of the right side pole. It was quite a scary climb, the rush involved was part of a exhillarating and dangerous process of making the sculpture; potentially, "Art that Kills".
The idea was to mount a metal pole to the top bridge
with clamps and bolts. The metal pole had hinges and the sing pre-attatched.
The swing base was a nine foot diameter bowl made out of fiberglass. It
would be our swing, suspended from what came out to be forty nine feet
of rope. We hoisted the metal bar up with two men on the ground and two
up on the tower. Once raised the two on the tower clamped it in place.
To elevate the swing and not have to lift its weight up, we placed it
on top of Kevin's van directly under the bridge.
This photo was taken at the top of the tower with the double dinosaur bridge in the background, and a shot of the now dead artist and true madman, Dave Christensen, co-founder of EE, bass player, metal sculptor, and bike artist were among his many talents.
ps, it was scary up there.
This photo was taken at the top of the tower with the double dinosaur bridge in the background, and a shot of the now dead artist and true madman, Dave Christensen, co-founder of EE, bass player, metal sculptor, and bike artist were among his many talents.
ps, it was scary up there.
Once up, two people ran the swing along its arc to build
up speed and swing higher. We had a huge arc, with our radius being 49
feet. The swing, due to its huge arc of travel, could not generate enough
power, even with two men on the ground running back and forth great distances,
to get the swing at super high levels, we may have achieved about 30 degrees
up.
The swing in all its glory on its initial run with same bridge in background and artist Kevin Cooney at the base of the pole. This is the best overall photo we have of the whole working piece, later, we were to ride in the disk with intentions of coming back to reinstall with shorter ropes.
The swing in all its glory on its initial run with same bridge in background and artist Kevin Cooney at the base of the pole. This is the best overall photo we have of the whole working piece, later, we were to ride in the disk with intentions of coming back to reinstall with shorter ropes.
This was a first foray into playground sculpture and
site specific installation for this collaborative group, EE was not formed
yet but this was a decisive achievement in its continuation as a genre.
This photo was of Kevin operating the swing. You can judge how high we reached by envisioning the poles in relation to the body.
This photo was of Kevin operating the swing. You can judge how high we reached by envisioning the poles in relation to the body.
