Brew History: All Bottled Up, 2010

installed for the  New Albany Bicentennial Public Art Project
New Albany, Indiana

Brew History: All Bottled Up, 2010
installed for the  New Albany Bicentennial Public Art Project, New Albany, Indiana
Community collected beer bottles, labels, steel, wood, Plexiglas, fiberglass, Styrofoam, paint, motion sensors, solar powered lights, and hardware

The New Albany Bicentennial Public Art Project was a multi-year outdoor exhibition of outdoor sculptures that will interpret New Albany’s rich history and heritage. This originated from a partnership between the Carnegie Center for Art and History and the New Albany Urban Enterprise Association.  Beginning in the spring of 2010, five temporary sculptures were installed in highly visible locations in the downtown historic district. Each subsequent year, new sculptures were selected and unveiled, culminating in 2013 with New Albany’s Bicentennial Commemoration. 

My sculpture for the Bicentennial Public Art Project, Brew History: All Bottled Up, focused on the history of taverns and breweries in New Albany dates back to 1830 with stories of homespun attitudes and community support.  In recognition of this beer chronicle, the primary material in this sculpture is locally collected, used beer bottles.  Furthermore, influenced by several sources such as the Lite-Brite toy, the song “99 Bottles of Beer,” and Tom Marioni’s social sculpture from 1970 titled The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art, in Brew History: All Bottled Up, I combined dissimilar, pop-culture materials and forms while playfully linking past and present.

Brew History: All Bottled Up, was included in a book titled Sculpture and Design with Recycled Glass, by Cindy Ann Coldiron, Schiffer Publishing, October 2011.