Proposal for the new Science Gallery in Venice, Italy. (unrealized)
1985, charcoal drawing on paper (6’wide x 2.5’high)
As the Sirocco and Bora winds move over the Venetian Lagoon in changing speeds, a wind turbine will capture the wind’s energy to power changing color images projected on the façade of the city’s new Science Gallery. Cynthia Pannucci will create five different images to start the project but then members of the local and global communities are invited to send their digital images that “capture the wind.”
Venice, besides its quaint gondolas, is home to a large sailing community. And by hosting the long-standing international Venice Biennale, it is also home to one of the most sophisticated art communities in the world. My proposal invites the public to become part of an ever-changing, signature art-science display that uses the wind to illuminate itself. Onliner, poetic texts will also be invited.
One of the ways sailors, even today, learn information about the wind for navigation, is to look at the patterns it makes on the surface of the water. Artists have a habit of doing the same — a pastime I enjoyed for over 20-years taking the Staten Island Ferry six nautical miles across the New York Harbor to the tip of Manhattan. And the seagulls playing in the deep wake of the ferry, and breath-taking sunsets looking west at New Jersey, all grounded me in nature’s relaxing presence.