Sculpture
The Meta Towers
Rainbow Upcycled Glass Art Sculpture | #TheMetaTowers
The Meta Towers Merits:
Artfields 2023
“The Meta Towers” won a Southeastern Partnership with the Charleston Parks Conservancy to design and build a sculpture for a location in their park!
Designing has begun. Site visits are booked. Stay tuned to @Tuxedokat.Imaginarium to watch the project unfold!
The Meta Towers in the Media:
WBTV’s “QC @ 3” TV Show
Artist creates rainbow sculpture
Independent Tribune
“TuxedoKat has spread more vibrant art in Downtown Concord”
Artist Statement:
The word “Meta” means “to refer to itself”, as in a photograph of a photographer. I always thought the word “meta” felt sexy to say and therefore had the most to mean – a sentiment of self-description I wanted for this dual tower of light magic and revitalization!
The Meta breathes life into items that are broken, whether broken glass or expectations, a new purpose is created using the experiences of both. As a child trying to behave in this world, I accumulated a vast collection of broken glass. As an artist trying to succeed in this world, I saw a vast collection of experiences that could be transformed and, in doing so, would transform me. This veil of shame would be pulled away with self-acceptance through my glass art process of repurposing and celebration of “flaws”. How poetic it is to be in the middle of my journey as I paint pictures, build sculptures, and share stories out of the broken pieces of my experiences.
Meta
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referring to iself
The Meaning
A yoga instructor in the community invited me to put a sculpture in his front lawn – which inspired the rainbow “chakra” coloring. He had mentioned the word “Meta” which had me curious about its meaning: refers to itself. Meta is a painter painting a portrait of themselves painting, a photographer photographing themselves being a photographer, and I loved referring to myself as the rainbow making a rainbow, the pieces of broken glass repurposed into something beautiful. I also loved the motif of highlighting the observer’s opinion of Meta as a direct reference of the observer’s opinion of themselves.
The Materials
The Glass
Vases, glasses, plates of every color were paid for and collected from thrift stores across Concord, Kannapolis and Charlotte.
The Resin
Resin is a wonderful medium that adds a thick gloss to a flat surface, can be formed inside a mold for custom shapes, and can even fill in large gaps to create objects river tables. Resin is a two-part mixture of liquid resin and liquid hardener that, once properly combined, undergoes a chemical reaction that hardens wherever poured. Different types of resin mixtures harden at different rates, have various rates of viscosity (the liquid factor of the resin), and can have a yellow or crystal clear color. Resin is water-resistant
This project required several types of resin to create the panels and adhere the panels to the internal frame. To allow for thoughtful placement of each piece of glass in one large mosaic, the slow-hardening MAS Art Pro resin was required to give me an hour of working time. To speed through the panel’s “fill” layers, MAS Table Top resin was used to a faster curing time. Finally, MAS Low Viscosity resin with a 10 minute working time was used to speed through the install the panels to the steel frame.
The Glass-Breaking Process
This is the part everyone loves.
We placed a flat-35 lb weight in the bottom of a large garage container, put like-colored glass vases, glasses, plates on top, then dropped the other flat-35 lb weight on top of the glass, creating smaller shards of glass. This process was more efficient time and clean-up-wise than just using a hammer.
The Orbs
Inspired by the bending of light found in the purpose of car headlight lenses, each of the four side panels dawns 7 orbs. These clear orbs refracts and highlight the direct light from inside the towers. The orbs were installed onto each panel with silicone and fiberglass.
The Lights
The each tower contains one strands of customizable RGB LED light strands controlled by the light manufacture’s phone app.
The Frame
The structural steel frame was designed in collaboration with local fabricator FP&A and powder coated white with prismatic sparkle top-coat by Advanced Metals, both local to Concord, NC.
The Process
Collection of Glass
Vases, glasses, plates of every color were paid for and collected from thrift stores across Concord, Kannapolis and Charlotte.
Cleaning & Sorting of Glass
Each glass item was thoroughly cleaned before the breaking process began.
Creating Panels
Each tower had three panels. The single large panel design consisted of the largest shards of glass placed one-by-one in a mosaic fashion. The two smaller panels were sprinkled with the bits and pieces of colored glass. The smaller panels were to be placed on the frame in a pointed position.
Layer One: Fiber Glass was pressed with resin into the mold.
Layer Two: Cleaned & sorted colored glass pieces were placed in a mosaic fashion to the fiber glass.
Layer Three: Two additional layers of resin were added to fill in the gaps and help with dulling the sharpness of the glass.
Dulling The Sharpness of the Glass
Each cured panel was removed from their molds and smoothed with a dremel or grinding tool to dull edges and break off sharp points of each piece of glass. When finished, a thick layer of table top resin top coat was the final layer in allowing the panels to be touchable.
Adhering Panels to Steel Frame
Each tower had three panels, one large and two small. The steel frame was braced with spacers to keep its form while adhere each panel to it one-by-one.
Creation of the Footer
On the corner of North Union Street and NE Marsh Street in Historic Downtown Concord, a footer was dug, fitted and filled with concrete. Conduits were within to run power through the footing and to the house.
Transportation & Installation
Transporting the two towers was assisted by an art-loving member of our community, Rod Ballard. Look at that sweet happy face!
Celebration
These installations have brought us closer to the community and the members that celebrate what we are doing. Concord really has no footprint of celebrating public art and the citizens reflect how they would like for that to change. The Meta is just the first of many sculptures that I will put up until the City of Concord takes over the job for me.
