Pre-cast concrete, new planting of Osage Orange trees, five bronze text panels 109 elements
6’–6’-3”h. x 22–24” dia. each.
Commissioned by the Art in Public Places Program of the Dublin Arts Council for the City of Dublin, OH. Landscape Architects: First Avenue Design. With support from the Cook & Ingle Company, Dalton, GA
Like many young suburban cities, Dublin, Ohio has changed over the past 25 years from a relatively small, agricultural community to a busy service and corporate city. In the process, land that has been farmed for approximately 1800 years has experienced rapid development. The site of this work is an acre-and-a-half plot cut off from its corporate headquarters neighbors by two roads. The call to artists identified the resulting green space as having “drive-by potential,” rather than being a destination park. After my proposal was accepted and I was asked to defend it, I learned that the Frantz family farm had occupied the site. In fact, Sam Frantz had been a leading corn hybridizer in the 1940s and ‘50s. I think of this work as a formal, somber memorial for corn production—not unlike a cemetery—and a surprising roadside attraction in the tradition of coffee shops that look like a giant cup and saucer or diners in the shape of hamburgers. The five text panels set at ground level provide brief historical accounts of land use in this area from the time of Native American settlements to the construction in the 1970s of “The Outerbelt” that spurred the growth of Columbus suburbs.
