Title: Sight Points- Minneapolis, Mogadishu, Oslo, Saigon
Artist: Thomas Rose
Material: Silk Screened glass panels
Description: Forty glass panels in the canopy of the station with star constellations screened on a piece of glass that is sandwiched with another piece of glass and installed. There are four different designs that are repeated. The four designs depict the same constellations but seen from the four different cities referenced in the title.
Summer time view
With snow on top
The "observation points" listed on each pane of glass identify the latitudinal and longitudinal point for the four cities of Minneapolis, Mogadishu, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), and Oslo. The constellations indicated on the glass (Cepheus, Draco, Ursa Minor, and the star Polaris) are mapped out as they would be seen in each of these cities. Polaris, a star within the constellation of Ursa Minor (Little Dipper) is the Northern Star. The cities Mogadishu, Saigon and Oslo, represent three different points of origin for people who have immigrated to Minneapolis.
Thomas Rose is a visual artist whose multi-media works have been included in exhibitions in China, Korea, France, Italy, Sweden, Iran, and Poland as well as the United States.
Rose has worked extensively in the public sphere with works in Springfield, Massachusetts; New York City; Kalamazoo, Michigan, and at the University of Minnesota, Coffman Union. Rose has also received two artist fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, as well as fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, The Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation and the Terra Foundation.
Rose continues his work in book arts and has produced six artist’s books which are in numerous collections such as: The Library of Congress, Washington D.C., The Whitney Museum of American Art, Hass Library of Art and Architecture at Yale University, Getty Museum, Los Angeles, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Institute of Art.
http://thomasrosesite.net/index2.html
Memory Theater, Fairfield, Connecticut, 1997
The Cedar-Riverside Station, and five other stations, originally had paver designs on the platforms created by artist Richard Elliott. Each platform was inspired by artifacts or architectural details found in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul communities and were developed by working with museums, community members and curators. The specific designs selected as inspirational starting points were picked for their cultural and historical importance and fall into three groups; native motif, immigrant fabrics, and the culture that has developed in Minneapolis as expressed through its architecture. Each platform design stands on its own, but together they make a unified statement about the cultural history of Minneapolis. Collectively, the artwork is titled, Then Till Now: A History and Culture Based Portrait Of Minneapolis As Expressed Through Six Geometric Platform Designs and originally appeared at Cedar-Riverside, Franklin, 38th Street, 46th Street, VA Medical Center, and American Boulevard Stations. Unfortunately, the paver bricks did not hold up well with the severe Minnesota winters and the heavy foot traffic of a transit system. The only remaining paver design exists at American Boulevard Station.
Artist’s Website: http://www.reflectorart.com/dick/index.html
