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Wyrick Realizes Vision in Revitalized Public Art Project
By next summer, visitors to the southwest terrace of the State Historical Building in Des Moines may finally be able to see the vision Iowa City artist Shirley Wyrick first conceived in 1987.
That’s because Wyrick will incorporate additional elements to the existing Critical Juncture/Fluid Boundary, her bronze relief sculpture depicting the clash of cultures between native inhabitants and early white settlers in Iowa. The enhanced work will be named Greenfall.
“It is a wonderful opportunity to be working toward realizing my earlier vision,” Wyrick said.
The concept of Critical Juncture/Fluid Boundary called for a 38-foot wide waterfall to interact with the bronze relief. Greenfall will simulate falling water with greenery and one-inch thick curved stainless steel rods spaced each foot along the width of the original waterfall and cut to create an arch over the bronze relief.
The change comes more than 17 years after Wyrick first proposed Greenfall. Since that time, budgetary constraints kept the project on hold until May of last year—when Wyrick said she received a call from Bruce Williams at the Iowa Arts Council saying her proposal had been accepted.
“I really did say, what proposal? Because the decision by the Department of Cultural Affairs took me by surprise! I didn’t realize it was even under discussion,” she said.
Anita Walker, director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, unveiled Greenfall at “Ignite the Night” in June, 2005. The event also served to raise funds for the project.
That event also featured the relighting of nationally-known public artist Cork Marcheschi’s renovated Plains Aurora light sculpture, created for the Historical Building at the same time as Wyrick’s Critical Juncture/Fluid Boundary.
Once Greenfall is complete, the revitalized work will enhance the southwest terrace’s role as a community hub in Des Moines’ Historic East Village neighborhood.
The complex process required to complete Greenfall has left Wyrick unfazed.
“It’s the nature of this type of art for public places that makes a careful step-by-step process necessary,” she said.
Another component of a public art project is teamwork. Some of the leaders who brought Greenfall to life in addition to Wyrick are: Steve Kuzynowski, Iowa Department of Administrative Services; Monica Fischer, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs; and Rick Seely AIA, of OPN Architects. A structural design engineer, metal fabricator, landscape architect, contractor, and several members of DAS and Historical Society staff round out the team.
Creating the sculpture continues to be a work in progress. Fabrication of the steel framework is set to begin this summer and landscape design is underway.
Many of Wyrick’s major public works—including those in the Levitt Center for University Advancement and the Johnson County Administration Building in Iowa City—focus on literal and metaphoric properties of “flow.”
Wyrick added the process of realizing Greenfall is in itself fluid, and it continues to run its course.
