Circum
2019
12'h x 12'w x 8'd
​Aluminum, acrylic, LEDs, sound art
Jeffersonville, IN

Circum is a direct celebration of the connection between Jeffersonville and steamboats.  It preserves and enhances the identity and history of steamboats in the city.  For cities that developed along major waterways, shipping and transportation were not only important, but also a necessity.  The river provided transportation, communication, and commerce that was vital to the success of the community of Jeffersonville.
 

The river had the power to sustain life and to take it away. Early peoples learned how to build canoes to navigate the treacherous waters, especially at the Rapids of the Ohio. The river was the great highway of travel before there were roads.

The river gave opportunities for travel and freedom.  Especially to the enslaved, because if they could get across the water to Jeffersonville, Indiana, they had a chance.  Many thousands crossed the Ohio River, often with the help of complete strangers who sent them on to Canada and a new life.
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The river provides calm, sometimes through the mesmerizing revolutions of a paddle wheel that at one time was immensely integral to the development and identity of Jeffersonville.