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wooden fruit ladders will appear painted in bright colors, running in a
serpentine conga line alongside I-84 between Hood River Oregon and Goldendale
Washington. The line of running ladders will appear four times in separate
installations along the route. The
exact times and locations of the
installations will not be disclosed ahead of time to preserve the element of
surprise for the viewers.
Public awareness
of art, community building and celebration of agricultural traditions in the
Columbia Gorge region will be the result of the ÒRunning Fruit LaddersÓ art
project. The areaÕs fruit growers,
artists, citizens and travelers
will all be a part of this large scale art installation.
ÒRunning Fruit
LaddersÓ is an art installation consisting of 100 fruit ladders of different
sizes and colors, which will be placed on properties near I-84. The ladders will be arranged to look as
if they might be a string of runners.
Seen in a serpentine line, the ladders will be out of their usual
context of orchards and with their bright colors and conga line formation will
obviously not be in their usual working mode.
The element of
surprise will play a large part in the success of the piece. After beginning in the area of Hood
River and with the ladders spending six weeks at a particular location, the
ladders will then be moved to a another location, several miles to the
east. This progression will be
repeated several times with no announcement as to where the ladders might
appear next. The public will be
riding along in their car on I-84 and suddenly, the installation will appear
(and disappear some time later).
The final number of individual installations is undetermined at this
time but in the neighborhood of four on the Oregon side of the Columbia River,
with the installation finally reaching Maryhill Art Museum.
The title ÒRunning
Fruit Ladders pays homage to ChristoÕs ÒRunning FencesÓ project in Marin County
in the eighties. The ladders
themselves symbolize the human need to aspire, the struggle to rise above our
circumstances and climb to higher levels.
The ladders also bring together our regionsÕ economic tradition of
agriculture and the ÒrunningÓ lines echo the currents in the nearby Columbia
River, the lifeblood of the region for thousands of years.
Public awareness
of the project would help promote the fruit growers of the region, through
magazine and news articles as well as the project itself. Arts in the Gorge would also be
promoted through this project, with increased awareness of art in the
Gorge. Tourism agencies would be
interested in partnering with this project for out of the region promotion. The public at large would benefit by
engaging with the art without having to leave their cars or enter an art
gallery. The drawing together of
the community of the Columbia Gorge through a combination of art, agriculture
and transportation is the object of this art piece.