Floodline Chime Pavilion (2023)
Summer 2023
Octagon of 4’x8’ steel panels, 70 or more tuned windchimes, floodwood strikers, beadwork, laser and wood etching, paint, aircraft cable, choral singers, music composition
Collaboration with artist Drew Austin
Floodline Chime Pavilion is a temporary, modular, interactive sculpture created for public activation during community events. This steel pavilion suspends around 100 aluminum chimes, many laser-etched, that loosely map the floodplain levels of specific Denver neighborhoods. The length of the selected chimes and the deepness of their tones correspond to the areas’ flood history and potential risk along a floodway. Using handheld strikers, made of wood collected from Platte River floods, participants are encouraged to enter the pavilion and gently strike the chimes to allow their tones to ring out throughout the surrounding public space. Additionally, the pavilion is activated with short performances for singers and chimes with two original compositions. These compositions capture the poetic, tragic, and hopeful journeys that water-related natural disasters can lead to, using mitigation-inspired poetic language woven into the lyrics. The pavilion was debuted in the summer months of 2023 in Ruby Hill, Overland Park, and Globeville.
This project is a response to FEMA’s ArtWorks award, facilitated by RedLine. Thank you to the community of people who made (make!) this work possible, including many artists, musicians, fabricators, collaborators, and contractors in the Denver area.
Pavilion Fabricator: Elmendorf Geurts
Chimes etched at RMCAD’s FabLab under Noah Phillips
Strikers beaded by Chelsea Kaiah James
Dowels cut and painted by Autumn Thomas
Singers throughout the debut season: Marisa Squadrito Geisler, Leah Podzimek, John Murray, Jerome Síbulo, Nathan Hall, Tiffany Matheson, Erin Trampler Bell, Jacob Wooten.
Videography and audio recording: John Roberts
Install assistance: Lares Feliciano and Jensina Endresen