About
Two busy streets intersect; there’s a traffic light, turning cars, buses, bikes and pedestrians crossing the street. Most people are headed toward the bus center where they arrive just in time to catch their bus. If too late, they wait for another to arrive. Today just such a missed connection leaves time for a commuter to slow his pace, to relax and to gaze down at the brass spirals underfoot that he’s hurried past day after day.
Starting at the center of the southern spiral he begins to read, “Shall we ride with Sky in Hand/Rushing past my window seat?/We travel daily dreaming of where and when, riding here and now, over and under the edge of light “Red Birdlanes” echoes of seats, down and around, again and again.” The western spiral continues, in part, “A mapmaker’s compass inscribes our journey, offering chances and choices…this town, this bus, that place, my neighbor.” It’s time. His bus arrives. He steps on board while, at the same time, one of the phrases, “dreaming of where and when,” repeats itself like a refrain inside his head.
As members of the design team contributing to the overall look of the Gravois-Hampton MetroBus Center, artists Con Christeson and Phil Robinson created two 16-foot brass coils they call Poetry Spirals that are inscribed with poems evoking themes of travel, memory and sense of place.
Courtesy of Metro Arts in Transit
Dimensions: 16′
Year Completed: 2002
Material: Brass, cast iron
Owner: Arts in Transit
