Unfolding Time, a new permanent site-specific exhibition along Marine Creek Parkway curated by Iris Bechtol, and featuring artists Leticia Bajuyo and Alicia Eggert, will be formally dedicated on Saturday, October 18, beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the Fort Worth Public Library – Northwest Branch. The artwork was commissioned by the City of Fort Worth through the Fort Worth Public Art Program, which is managed by Arts Fort Worth.
Funded by the City of Fort Worth 2008 Bond Program (Proposition 1), Unfolding Time features two statement sculptures that encourage viewers to consider time as both endless and cyclical. Situated in the roundabouts at Cromwell-Marine Creek Road and Longhorn Road, the artworks respond to their respective sites by likening them to a clock, conceptualizing time through form and language.
Located at the Cromwell-Marine Creek Road roundabout, Leticia Bajuyo’s One Way features twenty-four (24) painted steel doilies employing the phrase “ONE WAY” as found on direction traffic signs. The repeated doily is reminiscent of vortexes, star-wheel rake tractors, hay bales, and dandelions which echo the history and landscape of northwest Fort Worth known for its ranchland near woodlands and open prairies. Placed at equal and opposite locations across the forty-foot (40’) circle and up to twenty feet (20’) in height, the doilies form an infinity symbol that appears and disappears similar to rows of crops. Painted in a gradation of blue to green, the undulating rhythm of the sculpture’s sequence mimics the changing of light over 24 hours each day as well as the cyclical nature of time across seasons. In concert with One Way, located at the Longhorn Road roundabout, Alicia Eggert’s A Very Long Now suggests the possibility of time extending, spiraling outward and upward. Constructed of sixty (60) aluminum laser cutouts of the word “NOW”, the twenty-nine foot (29’) tall monumental sculpture alludes to the number of seconds in a minute and the number of minutes in an hour. Driving through the roundabout, viewers see each “NOW” appear and disappear, reminding us of the fleeting nature of the present moment while also indicating time as continuous, each moment an extension of the past and a bridge to the future. A Very Long Now asks viewers to simultaneously consider ‘now’ in the present while also imagining what ‘now’ in the future could be.
The colorful infinity wave in Bajuyo’s One Way and the spiraling curve of Eggert’s A Very Long Now lead drivers around each roundabout like hands moving around a clock. Their visual cues remind viewers of the pulsating rhythm that exists both in human systems and the greater ecosystems surrounding Marine Creek Parkway – how they circle, loop, and overlap. Unfolding Time gives tangible form to the invisible, engaging the public in a dialogue on various psychological and philosophical aspects of time. Whether measured in seconds, minutes, or hours, Bechtol’s curatorial approach beckons viewers to slow down and encourages a more thoughtful experience of everyday life.
The public is invited to join in the celebration of Unfolding Time, featuring One Way and A Very Long Now, at the Fort Worth Public Library – Northwest Branch (6228 Crystal Lake Drive, 76179).
