The installation process for Pathways was great.  I had a vision for it that was very meticulous. I put together an instruction manual that was like a Lego manual.

I created it like I was building Pathways on the computer. But the way I did it was for the structure.  The pieces had to support each other.  That’s how I devised the instructions.  Well, there’s a whole other layer–the logistics of putting that piece in.  And there’s really no way to pre-think that.  Because you have the lift and the ladders, and those might contradict how the thing structurally needs to be put together. 

So there were times when we didn’t follow the instruction manual.  It was like, clearly if we don’t put this one piece in now, we’re never going to get it in.  So we did deviate some, but mostly it was good because without that instruction manual, there’s no way to know how it goes together. 

Anyway, the installation went 95% or maybe 97% perfect.  It was unbelievable.  Things would magically line up–it was great.

There were a few missing holes, which was the best situation to have, rather than having holes that were there but in the wrong place, because what are you going to do?  That only happened one time, and it was in an ideal spot. We made a little medallion out of stainless steel with the name of the piece and the date and my name, and it looks like it was meant to be there.  And it’s low enough that you can actually spot it.  So that was perfect.

The process was very hair-raising sometimes because we’d put the pieces up and then we’d go to the instruction book and look at what the next step was.  Somebody would go find what the piece was we were looking at.  All the pieces were all in a pile and labeled, so we’d get this piece and then we’d look at what we had built and try to figure out with the instruction manual where this thing would go.  And we’d see the holes up there to attach it.  The thing is, these holes are on a vertical piece or a horizontal piece–they’re all on different planes, you’re looking at them from the ground, and you think, there’s no way that that’s going to line up with the piece we have to put in.  It really was an optical illusion. 

One time we had just put a piece in, and everything seemed to fit except one hole was three inches off.  And from how things had been going together, this was not right.  Something was goofy.  And at first we thought, well, we’ll just crank it over–but no, if you do that, the thing’s going to be completely bent. There’s no way it’s going to work.  And we just had to trace it back.  And we discovered, sure enough, an earlier piece we put in was wrong. And that was great.  We did something wrong and now we changed it and it totally lined up.  That was a great feeling.

And then there was one other hair-raising time–it was before lunch, and we needed the next piece.  I went to look for this piece, V-8. There were still a lot of pieces there, but there was no V-8.  They’re labeled on both sides with tape.  So I went through the pile again.  I’d done this before where I’d just missed it, the guys had too.  Then Dave went through, and there was absolutely no V-8.  Truly, it’s not there.  I even left–I went to get sandwiches for everybody, hoping that miraculously when I got back, they would have figured out what the problem was.  And they had gone through all the instructions and everything and there was no V-8. 

Dave thought, well, we just do what we can, we move on. I’m like, no, Dave, you don’t understand.  That’s great, but look at V-8 on the drawing.  There’s four pieces connected to it.  Which means it’s not just V-8 that’s missing, but also all the other pieces that connect to it.  And there’s pieces that connect to those pieces.  So you can’t just work around it.  And so we were talking about it: okay, we’ll get one produced in the next week, hopefully–Dave is a fabricator, he knows what he’s doing, it’s a simple thing–so he could maybe do this back in Minneapolis, and then we have to get it painted and bring it back and–what about the lift?  The lift’s $2000 a week.  And we’re sitting there and it’s total bummer.  Things had been going so well.  Is it possible that these things are just mis-labeled?  Well, the only way we’d know, it’d have to be 10 feet long and have holes in these spots… and sure enough, we found one that was 10 feet long but it was labeled V-3. They had mis-read the imprinted numbers and thought the 8 was a 3, and there it is!  Yes, we can finish! 

The last day of the installation was something like a 14-hour day, and so it got dark while we were there, because we were fixing something. It was awesome because the lights kicked on and nobody had seen it, including me, in the dark, and it was a gradual thing.  So the lights came on–it’s still fairly light, so you don’t really see anything–and as we’re working, the sunlight fades, and it’s like holy criminy, this thing is really dramatic, and it gave us more energy and we finished up and it was awesome.

The boulders are in now too.  There are four big boulders, and they really anchor it. 

The dedication was great too.  The concept was inherently what they’re about, that’s by design, and so they seemed really thrilled.  I was really honored by what the president and the art professor said.  It was really nice. Best dedication I’ve been to, for sure, of my things.

The whole thing was a completely satisfying experience. 

Pathways, public art, Rochester