As the year runs away from us, let's take a moment to remember some of the public art in the region that will be hard to forget. Above is visual artist Shinique Smith's "Seven Moon Junction," which dominated the 70-by-76-foot mural at Dewey Square in the Greenway for much of 2015. It was done in cooperation with one of Smith's exhibits at the Museum of Fine Art.
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Lawrence Weiner's "A Translation From One Language to Another" succeeded Smith in September at Dewey Square. Perhaps not surprisingly, everyone has seen what he or she wants to see in the conceptual pioneer's mural.
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In April, M.I.T. dedicated a moving memorial to Sean Collier, the campus police officer the marathon terrorists murdered in 2013. Located between the Stata Center and the Koch cancer-research institute, the work, overseen by M.I.T. architecture head J. Meejin Yoon, features five half-arches extending from a central keystone, as if a hand opening up.
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For a few days in May, Southie's Lawn on D park featured a 16,900-square-foot maze called Pentalum. Designed by British firm Architects of Air, it was meant as "a celebration of beauty and geometry."
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In late April, Cambridge selected the five winners of a contest to divine poetry suitable for inscription in the city's sidewalks: Rose Breslin Blake, Benjamin Grimm, Ty Muto, Carolyn Russell Stonewell, and Elissa Warner. The Department of Public Works started imprinting the lyrics shortly thereafter, beginning with the test run shown above.
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And who could forget Brookline artist Janet Echelman's aerial sculpture over the Greenway from May to October? "As If It Were Already Here" involved more than 100 miles of rope and around 500,000 hand-knitted knots as well as attachments to three high-rise buildings. The sculpture soared to 365 feet at its highest point and weighed one ton. Memorable, indeed.
· New Dewey Square Mural Is Up and the Debate Has Begun [Curbed Boston]
· Here's How Mind-Blowing the Lawn on D Maze Will Be [Curbed Boston]
· Cambridge Giving Shot at Immortality Through Sidewalk Poetry [Curbed Boston]
· How a 1-Ton Sculpture Will Float 365 Feet Above the Greenway [Curbed Boston]
· Our Curbed Awards '15 archive [Curbed Boston]