With the holiday season still upon us, dozens are traveling to and from the homes of family and friends. People are trying to make their way from A to B for the New Year, and a significant amount of those are taking to the air. Those travelers, though, could also be patrons if airports like Logan International decided to step up their art game.
Logan is very much one of Boston’s most underutilized canvases. Between January and October 2014, 26,791,637 passengers made their way through the airport — a built-in audience ripe for artists, local or not, to show off their most creative works.
But the installations showcased in Logan are rather underwhelming. Recently, an exhibit called Invention, Innovation, Imagination was put on display featuring images of President John F. Kennedy’s Space Program push, which resulted in a number of creations, including space blankets and the LED lightbulb. It also contained audio snippets of JFK’s famous space race speech.
I’m all for historic presentations such as these, but Massport bills its public art program at Logan as a reflection of “the sophistication and cultural diversity of the City of Boston, the region of New England, and the world at large.”
To live up to that kind of hype, more is needed. Not to mention, it’s a great way to temper the nerves of anxious flyers.
“The focus shifted 100 percent to security, rightfully so, but to the detriment of getting anything new and exciting up in most terminals,” Max Grinnell, a writer and educator of urban studies, told BostInno. “Most people are so rushed, frustrated or scared when they’re at the airport — any airport — they don’t really consciously think, ‘Oh, let me go take a look at this sculpture.'”
Cities countrywide and around the world are outshining Logan, however, in terms of art, and are now getting those nervous and hurried people to stop and enjoy what’s on display.
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport boasts a mile-long kinetic light sculpture called The Sky’s the Limit. The beauty and popularity of this vibrant tunnel is such that it’s been listed as one of the top 150 works of architecture in the country. It’s comprised of 466 neon tubes and controlled by three different computers cycling through various patterns.
Singapore’s Changi Airport is also home to an interactive display. Dubbed Kinetic Rain, the installment in Terminal 1 is a conglomeration of 1,216 aluminum-covered copper droplets that rise and fall to create various shapes that move like the flow of water. These abstract shapes repeat themselves every 15 minutes, giving plenty of time for travelers to enjoy what appears to be poetry in motion.
At London Heathrow Airport, it’s nearly impossible to miss out on its staple work of art. Slipstream, housed in Terminal 2, hangs 65 feet above the ground, weighs 77 tons and is longer than the largest passenger airliner in the world. In fact, it’s the largest public sculpture in Europe.
Art breathes new life into Edmonton International Airport, as well — literally. Living Wall is a 1,420-square-foot canvas, featuring more than 8,000 live plants representing 32 different species. The work is also LEED certified, and the flora are kept alive using an automated irrigation system. According to EIA, NASA found that there are 10 plants best suited for purifying air and Living Wall happens to contain nine of them.
It’s not that Logan’s art is bad. Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. But by expanding its program to include more installations, both permanent and temporary, Massport would be able to reflect Boston’s values and on a larger scale to everyone who passes through.
Invention, Innovation, Imagination is a good start, but it pales in comparison to what could be done. As we saw with the Greenway mural, people want to beautify public spaces. As we’re seeing with Fields Corner, people want them to be an extension of themselves and their communities.
Featured Image via Creative Commons/ Mr.TinDC (CC BY-ND 2.0)
