Photo Credit: Nicolene Jordan
Contributed by Carmen Summerfield
The term “public art” properly refers to works of art in any media that has been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside, and accessible to all.
Currently there are pieces of public art on display throughout Alaska, including hundreds of pieces of artwork in the Anchorage area, and the Alaska State Council on the Arts is currently developing a database of all existing state-funded public art projects.
New projects and requests frequently come up, and an online site, CaFE, or www.Call for Entry.org, has a nation-wide listing of proposals for Art in Public Places programs.
Local Valley Arts Alliance artist, Nicolene Jordan, is no stranger to public art. You’ve seen her work…
At the intersection of the Glenn and Parks Highways, there is a gigantic steel sculpture attached to the retaining wall. This 100 foot long sculpture consists of steel cutouts of moose, birds, and Alaskan scenery.
Nicolene drew her original design on graph paper, and then positioned and arranged the individual shapes to fit 8 ft. by 20 ft. steel sheets. Then she took her drawings to a specialized steel cutter in Anchorage.
Photo Credit: Nicolene Jordan
A specialized alloy weathering steel was selected, in 3/8-inch thick sheets. This particular alloy was chosen because she wanted only the top layer to rust. Each steel plate weighed over 3100 pounds and, as you’re starting to see, this was not a simple project. The steel moose, for instance, weighs as much as a real moose.
After the designs were cut and loaded on a truck, Nicolene brought them to Palmer and laid out the pieces in her gravel pit. There she applied her final touches – distressing, bending and accelerated rusting – to achieve her particular artistic vision.
Months later, as the Glenn Highway construction was nearing completion, the art project was ready to “hang”. Nicolene arrived on-site with her sculptures, and the contractor arranged for a crane and some labor to help fix the metal sculptures to the wall.
The sculptures were intentionally spaced from the wall to add shadows and a 3D effect, as well as to avoid rust stains on the light concrete.
She also made a similar sculpture (but only 75 feet long) at a retaining wall along the Glenn Highway near Eagle River. This sculpture, Eagle Valley, depicts eagles and mountain scenes.
And don’t forget the metal fish on the Fly Over Bridge at the Glenn and Parks intersection…
