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Wondrous

Wondrous is a glistening stainless steel sculpture composed of a cloud of words located at the entrance of the Wheeler Taft Abbett Library in Marana, Arizona. The artwork was developed from personal memory of the artist recalling visits to the library throughout his childhood. It references the experience of reading many books simultaneously as the phrases from fiction, history, biography, and science swim around in one’s head and recombine into an abstract sense of knowledge. 

 

Wondrous was created through direct interaction with the community. Local visitors to the library contributed words from a series of different texts ranging from Harry Potter to romance novels. The visual word patterns were developed through software that arranges the phrases so that verbs tended to follow subjects and objects to follow verbs. This pattern encourages the reader of the artwork to move their gaze through the swarm of words and create phrases and connections with new meanings. At night, powerful LED lighting projects intense color through the word-cluster casting overlapping shadows in six colors on the landscape around the sculpture, the surrounding walls, and passersby alike.

Date:

2008

Location:

Wheeler Taft Abbett Library, Marana, AZ

Dimensions:

19' x 3' x 9'

Media:

galvanized steel, LED lighting

Commissioning Agency: 

Tucson Pima Arts Council

Artist:

Joseph O'Connell

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Creative Machines Inc.

4141 E. Irvington Rd.

Tucson, Arizona 85714

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Our Creative Machines shop is located on the ancestral lands of the Tohono O'odham Nation. We are nestled in the heart of Tucson, Arizona, a vibrant, culture-rich city, both presently and historically. This land was home to some of the earliest people in North America, the Hohokam, and we honor and respectfully acknowledge the indigenous nations that have stewarded this land since time immemorial. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the Tohono O’odham and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.

SUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT

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