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Line Drawing, 2006-2007

Poe Parking Garage, Downtown Tampa, Florida

408' x 56' x 33'
High-tenacity Multi-Filament-Polypropylene, 36-degree Ellipsoidal Spotlights, Colored Dichroic Glass Filters
Commissioning Agency: Tampa Public Art



IMAGES



STATEMENT

I was drawn to this site precisely because there was nothing to draw me to it. Its concrete construction method typifies the kind of flavorless, colorless structure we see everywhere in America that ultimately disappears from public memory.

Last year, I began my research by asking people in Tampa what they thought of the garage. The vast majority of people couldn't recall what it looked like, and weren't exactly sure where it was, despite the fact it takes up an entire city block of waterfront in the heart of downtown Tampa.

The site called for an infusion of warmth and color sufficient to draw people inside and through the space. The site's layout inspired me to design a two-part installation. The first part is physical, a three-dimensional line drawing suspended from the ceiling. The second part has no physical presence at all, and is merely a projection of the other, creating a 400-foot-long shadow drawing. I began to see this project as a contemporary interpretation of Plato's Allegory of the Cave, using urban infrastructure as a modern-day cave wall. The shadow drawing becomes more complex as it introduces a dialogue with the existing linear pattern embedded in the concrete wall that directly expresses the structure of the garage and the way it was made.