Iron Feathers

 

On a smooth patch of ground cleared from scruffy land along a major north-south road on the west side of Albuquerque, there's a strangely beautiful public art installation.

It's called "Flyway," commissioned by the City of Albuquerque Public Art Program and created by local artist Robert Wilson.  The installation was conceived as a tribute to the annual migration of sandhill cranes that fly from Alaska and Canada to winter in the wetlands of the Rio Grande River in central New Mexico.

"Flyway" is constructed from ninety-six 16-foot long steel angle iron beams recycled from jetty jacks -- tripodal structures installed along the Rio Grande in the 1940s and 50s to stabilize the river banks and reduce erosion.  They're called jetty jacks because they resemble the children's toy/game from yesteryear.

(A jetty, in case you didn't know, is a structure extended into a sea, lake, or river to influence the current or tide or to protect a harbor or shoreline.)

Over the years, as dams and other water control measures were constructed upstream, the jetty jacks became obsolete and generally too expensive to remove.  Many of them remain on the banks of the river, rusting and overgrown with vines.

"Flyway" consists of six rows of sixteen "jetty jack" beams that have been reclaimed from the river banks.  The beams of each row are set at different angles to make a shape that, from the side, evokes the silhouette of the Sandia Mountains to the east, or the shape of an airfoil or wing.

The top end of each beam, rather than being a flat right angle of rusty iron, has been shaped to resemble the shape of a feather and painted to evoke the blue sky of New Mexico.

If you are interested in seeing how "Flyway" was conceived and built (as told by the artist, Robert Wilson), you can watch a 21-minute video about it by clicking here.

Regular readers of this blog know that for photographing static subjects I am a firm believer in the practice of "walking around the teacup."  (For those who are unfamiliar with the term, click here for a longer description of the process.)  "Flyway" is a classic "teacup" opportunity, which I took on two visits last April.  For your enjoyment, here are some of my many views of the endlessly fascinating "Flyway."

If you would like to see these images in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy!