137.5° by Benjamin Winters & Vaclav Sipla
Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Boston Art Commission, in collaboration with the City of Boston's Public Works Department, are pleased to announce the design selection for ArtBarrier. ArtBarrier is a new program, which will add color and vitality to the often-overlooked concrete Jersey barriers located on public roadways. Local artists will create stencils that can be used by volunteers to paint the barriers, as part of the annual Boston Shines volunteer program. The artists will be working with volunteers on Friday April 26th and Saturday at Northern Avenue and North Washington Street.
The winning design, entitled 137.5°, is by Benjamin Winters and Vaclav Sipla. The artists have engaged in a range of projects throughout the region and will bring their combined innovation and creativity to the ArtBarrier program. Benjamin Winters is a designer concerned with the potential for creating identity and space through returning decorative ornaments to the public setting. Vaclav Sipla is a classically trained stone sculptor who cofounded Sipla Newsam Studio, an art studio concerned with site specific public art whose philosophy has been described as urban Zen.
The artists describe their design as “a stylized version of a sunflower, created using mathematics and computer drafting software. The sunflower is a plant native to the area, and is often viewed as a symbol of optimism, as the faces of the mature plant face Eastward towards the rising sun. It also contains a natural expression of the golden ratio, thought by some to be relayed to beauty”.
If you are interested in volunteering Friday from 11am-3pm or Saturday from 12pm-6pm, please email [email protected].