This post is the third in a series about Sky Portal in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In designing Sky Portal, basically what I did is I used the balloon forms found in the history of ballooning, and hot air balloon and navigational aids as inspiration.  And the resulting piece is basically a 72-foot diameter circle. It’s a concrete circular path, and within that there’s a kind of a compass rose form that is oriented correctly to the cardinal directions.  I worked hard on that–there was a question as to where is north?  Are we doing magnetic north or geographic north?  How accurate?  There was some double-checking on that one!

Anyway, it’s all about circles and radiating lines and suspense–like suspended objects in the sky.  So around this 72-foot circle there are 24 steel poles that kind of lean outward. They’re custom-made light poles that are 25 feet tall, and they’re fabricated so that they lean outward.  And each of them has a cable that comes back to the center and suspends an 8-foot diameter stainless steel cylinder.  So there are 24 cables coming off of these poles and they suspend a stainless steel cylinder that’s mirror polished on the inside and on the outside.  And there’s some fabric on the top too, colored fabric that’s woven around a framework on top. 

And below this cylinder is a small circular bench area, very small, it’s 8 feet and pretty much matches the cylinder.  But you can walk out on the north arm of the compass rose and then enter this space and sit there and look up through the cylinder.  And so during the times of the Fiesta when balloons are being set off in the field and then they float over the museum, the Portal frames the balloons as they go over.  It also reflects them before they approach.  It’s very interesting, and it distorts their reflection.  And then they disappear.  And then as soon as they’re directly overhead, they reappear, and then disappear, and then their reflection goes onto the side wall again.  All kinds of movement. 

And the piece is illuminated, there’s a light that shines up, it’s in the very center.  Anyway, and it’s balloon-like.  There are references to the gondola of the balloon–the seating area is very small and gondola-like.  It’s just like a balloon.  I mean, in a balloon, you’re in a very confined area in this huge landscape.  It’s the same idea.

The poles also were inspired by the first ballooning flights.  They would have wooden poles with ropes that would tether the balloon until it was ready to go off.  You can see that in old prints.  So I derived a lot of inspiration from a smattering of history and balloon shapes.

The commission–I was really inspired, it felt good, I felt pretty solid about it. It was chosen unanimously, which is good.  I think there were 5 finalists.  And at the time it was a large commission for me.  Big win.  I didn’t know if I was over promising–it’s complex site work and everything.  One thing that was kind of interesting about it is that they had stated they wanted something low-maintenance, permanent, and at the time I was doing a lot more fiber work.  And I knew that one of the reasons I was selected as a finalist was because of the color and the fabric.  But when I read that they wanted a permanent low-maintenance piece, I didn’t even go there.  My original proposal had no fiber, no fabric, no color.  And they selected me, but they said we would like you to somehow figure out how to get color in there.  And I said absolutely, if there’s a time to put color and fabric in a piece, this is it, right?  It’s the balloon.  But the beautiful thing about it is they came back to me, I wasn’t trying to sell them on that.  I said, look, if you do this, it’s going to require re-weaving, it could tear, there’s high winds, it’s not a permanent material.  But they were on board with that, and I was happy because it just made the piece so much better.  It’s the focal point.

Albuquerque, public art, sky portal