Seasongood Pavilion at Eden Park – (Unrealized)

This proposal was rejected by the Cincinnati Parks Department for a number of reasons in January 2021. The renderings contained here are only that, digital renderings of what the project could have looked like if approved.
The inspiration of the piece is the indefinitely lingering shutdown of the performing arts due to COVID and COVID restrictions.

Note to be placed in placards around pavilion for duration of installation:

From the top, this installation highlights a removal from consciousness. By drawing black lines across the top of the concert bowl the viewer’s eye is drawn also to connect the left and right rims of the bowl in visual continuity, and subsequently forget everything which exists beneath.

Just as the blight of COVID-19 washed across the world and destroyed the performing arts industry in America one fell swoop, reducing concert pavilions to glorified sun shades and relegating theaters to collect dust, here the intent of this installation is to visually remove this concert pavilion from the viewer’s consciousness and consideration. From the top, compounding black lines visually scribble out the concert bowl as if to communicate to the viewer, “Off limits. Not allowed. Please ignore.”

Standing down within the bowl and looking up you see a new perspective, and a black cloud hanging over your head. Here you stand shoulder-to-shoulder with individuals in the performing arts industry who are deeply affected by COVID-related shutdowns. From this angle the yarn threads are thin and sparse and you can freely see daylight, but as a collective structure it blankets in its inescapability.

This is their perspective.

Actors, musicians, performers, dancers, directors, managers, agents, playwrights, stagehands, riggers, lighting directors, production managers, promoters, sound engineers, choreographers, ushers, bouncers, ticket takers, drivers, and even bartenders and janitors. These people cannot escape the black cloud hanging over their head.

This is their perspective.

This menagerie of people whose lives previously revolved around creating beautiful, colorful, enlightening and overwhelming experiences will continue to suffer while silently ignored and quietly forgotten until this black cloud is lifted on this industry.

 

Timeframe:

To coincide with the inspiration for the piece install was to be complete on the anniversary of the original COVID shutdown order in 2021 which went into effect March 23 in Ohio. In an ideal world, I’d like to plan for the piece to remain up for two weeks and then indefinitely to draw an analogy to the original COVID shutdown orders lasting indefinitely. In this case I would expect a maximum lifespan of 45 days before beginning removal.

 

Rendering #1 – Outside – Rendering #1 for project showing a view looking down the main path entrance to the concert bowl. The black lines create an additive effect from directly above and below, and draws the eye across from rim to rim. This has the mental effect of disassociating the concert bowl beneath from the rest of the landscape. It is removed from consciousness. Much like the effect of COVID shutdowns on the performing arts industry, this installation is visually saying, “just forget about this, imagine it doesn’t exist,” and denying us from grasping that which is right in front of us. The installation is visually marking this concert bowl “off limits” for its intended use and scribbling out any potential, begging the viewer to let it blend into the landscape.

Rendering #2 – Outside Right – Rendering #2 showing a different angle from the right.

Rendering #3 – Inside Left – Rendering #3 showing a view from within the concert bowl and just below the level of the yarn. The additive effect of the yarn lines creates the feeling of a ceiling so upon descending into the bowl visitors noticeably pass a threshold where it becomes almost a completely flat plane. This signals a shift in perspective. The piece is composed of more open space than physical material but if you find the right perspective it all comes into view. The intangibility of a pandemic, spread through invisible particles in the air, finds strong comparisons here.

 

Rendering #4 – Inside Bottom – Rendering #4 – Once inside visitors look directly up at the yarn they see more sky than material. From within the bowl you see the perspective of workers and performers from the performing arts industry. The black cloud of the negatives surrounding COVID-related shutdowns is lingering, constricting and ever present. Yet it is also nearly intangible and fleeting when viewed head-on, allowing air to freely pass through. The shutdowns imposed due to COVID are like an unphysical and nearly invisible spiderweb constantly containing the industry and at the same time removing it from the rest of the world.

The piece would create a nearly flat plane. If a visitor was to stand perfectly at eye level the piece nearly disappears into a line.

The natural bowl without any additions.