Return Journey is in Brackett Park in Minneapolis.  Brackett Park is owned and administered by the Minneapolis Park Board, and they have this rocket there, this rocket play structure from 1962, and it had been taken down in 2002 I think because it was old and it didn’t meet modern safety requirements. Yet it was a beloved thing, right?  People had climbed it, then those people grew up and their kids had climbed it and gone down the slide. And it was this beloved symbol of Longfellow Neighborhood.

But there had been complaints. People were getting stuck in there, kids being at the top level and then parents not being able to fit through the small holes to go get the kids, that kind of thing.  So when they took it down, there was an outcry from the neighborhood: “We want the rocket back!” And so they eventually agreed–the park board agreed to bring the rocket back, but as a permanent non-climbable piece of art that would be maintained by the city of Minneapolis.  So really the sculpture itself would belong to the city of Minneapolis on Park Board property.

And they wanted a certain amount of money raised for maintenance right off the bat.  Then it was about fund-raising. Well, first they selected an artist. I applied for it–I thought it was a cool thing, because I liked the structure.  And it just looks very structural and very frame-like, and seemed appealing to me. So when it turned into an art project, it was like wow, this could be cool.  And actually, it wasn’t on the site then either, it was off already.

So basically, when I was hired to be the artist, it was a tricky problem, because you have this iconic beloved structure, and it’s actually a piece of climbable playground art that they want as a non-climbable non-playable structure.  So there are some practical things that you have to do, but there are also some artistic things that you have to do. The power of it is that it’s recognizable, so the more you change it, and alter it, the more you’re messing with people’s memories too, in a way.

So I think that was one of the keys to me, is to treat it like this historical thing, and not alter it, or alter it as little as possible.  Leave it rusting. Repaint the fins and the nosecone. Leave the graffiti in it. And then get it so it’s inaccessible.

Since I work with fiber, I’m interested in lines and space, so I’m trying to find some sort of solution that worked with the rocket.  And really, the idea of how a kid or how somebody would represent something flying through space, like an airplane or a rocket on a piece of paper, and just showing lines like it’s speeding through space–that really inspired me.  And that formed the idea. So then it was like yeah, maybe this thing is shooting through space. Maybe it’s shooting off of its site, but at the same time it’s held to its site by these cables. And I used the structure of the rocket to determine where those cables are attached.  And then I just brought them down into the ground and they formed two ellipses. And so that’s the idea.  

I mean, the piece–the rocket–was originally at the opposite side of the park, so it was moved to its present location.  And that was also part of the idea, was that the rocket was here, then it was gone, and now it’s returned and it’s staying.  But it’s been a journey and it’s tethered to its site but it’s also lifting off. That’s basically the idea of Return Journey.

Minneapolis, public art, Return Journey