DENVER OFFICE OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS ANNOUNCES DEDICATION OF TEMPORARY ARTWORK CURRENT 3 BY VIRGINIA FOLKESTAD ON MANNY’S BRIDGE IN LODO
The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs (DOCA), in partnership with the LoDo Neighborhood Association (LoDoNA), is pleased to announce the dedication of temporary artwork CURRENT 3 by artist Virginia Folkestad on Manny’s Bridge in LoDo, located at Wynkoop St. over Cherry Creek. The dedication will take place on Friday, March 6, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. The dedication is free and open to the public.
CURRENT 3 by Virginia Folkestad is a site-specific, interactive light installation, which is part of a public/private collaboration between DOCA and LoDoNA called LoDo Lights, created to celebrate and honor Denver’s 150th birthday.
Manny’s Bridge, site of CURRENT 3, the first LoDo Lights installation, was rebuilt twice as a railroad bridge and more recently saved for pedestrian use; thereafter known as Manny’s Bridge. It has been witness to Denver’s history and will continue to be a witness to Denver’s future.
CURRENT 3 encourages play and collaboration. Installations modify the way a particular space is experienced and this installation is meant to give users of the bridge an immersive experience; a change from the usual, familiar occurrence of traveling across the bridge. Visitors become aware of their place in time and space.
As with many examples of installation art, this work invites the visitor to take control and become a participant in the completion of the work by turning the bridge into a kinetic sculpture. Light and projections are triggered by movement, enveloping people as they cross the bridge. The light that appears invites one to explore further by continuing to cross the bridge. Concurrently, projections onto the deck of the bridge give a nod to its history and its significance in the development of Denver.
The colors, which wash the bridge, were specifically chosen for their physiological and emotional properties; their relationship to one another intensifies each. Their visual temperatures—the coolness of blue and the warmth of amber—contrast with one another.
Virginia Folkestad creates large, viewer participatory, conceptual installations. A fascination with materials began as a child with a blue ribbon-awarded toothpick sculpture at the Los Angeles County Fair. Early on she had an interest in fibers, and the structure of the woven fibers led to further exploration of materials such as aluminum mesh, steel, wax, concrete, thread and organic material. She finds the unique – even surprising – manner in which materials relate and connect to suggest basic metaphors for societal connections, using them in her current conceptual installations.
Folkestad’s award-winning work—twice the recipient of the Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship in Visual Arts and two artist grants from the United States Department of State—has been exhibited in many national and international venues. She is a graduate of Metropolitan State College of Denver, where she received a BFA with honors. She has received additional training in blacksmithing and woodworking. Folkestad is currently an artist-in-residence at RedLine in Denver.
This temporary installation is to remain on exhibit through June, 2009. It was selected in a public process by a committee of community members, residents, artists and art professionals.
For more information on the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs’ Public Art Program visit
www.denvergov.org/publicart.