Day 34: Art at SMF (Part 1)
SMF is the Sacramento International Airport. The new Terminal B opened in October 2011 and is a beautiful light-filled soaring glass structure with some wonderful public art (thanks to legislative requirements about public construction projects).
The older Terminal A also has its share of cool public art, but this series of posts will focus on Terminal B, primarily because Mr. E and I were able to take a tour of this artwork as part of a program organized through the Crocker Art Museum when the new terminal opened.
I'm going to shamelessly poach from the SMF web site for pictures and descriptions of the various art pieces and will start with my favorite: the Red Rabbit.
Officially titled Leap, this enormous sculpture by Lawrence Argent is a huge red rabbit constructed of aluminum steel, granite, and bronze that extends from the glass ceiling of the Terminal all the way down two levels to the Baggage Claim area. Mr. E and I learned all about the history of its construction during the tour. The artists and metalworkers created and crafted the entire Rabbit as part of the design process and then had to dismantle the entire structure and piece it back together once on site in the Terminal.
According to the blurb on the web site: "The artist chose to make a sculpture of a rabbit to appear as though it was leaping from the outside of the airport - in- and because it is instantly recognizable but allows airport users to come up with their own story or answer to the question, 'Why a red rabbit?' "
What many people miss about this sculpture - especially those who don't have bags to claim - is that the bunny is actually jumping into a suitcase on the ground floor.
You can get a sense of the full scale of the rabbit and its suitcase here, thanks to having some travelers in the photo to provide additional context:
This sculpture quickly became an iconic symbol of the new Terminal among locals, and there's even a restaurant in Midtown that opened around the same time that's called The Red Rabbit.
The older Terminal A also has its share of cool public art, but this series of posts will focus on Terminal B, primarily because Mr. E and I were able to take a tour of this artwork as part of a program organized through the Crocker Art Museum when the new terminal opened.
I'm going to shamelessly poach from the SMF web site for pictures and descriptions of the various art pieces and will start with my favorite: the Red Rabbit.
Officially titled Leap, this enormous sculpture by Lawrence Argent is a huge red rabbit constructed of aluminum steel, granite, and bronze that extends from the glass ceiling of the Terminal all the way down two levels to the Baggage Claim area. Mr. E and I learned all about the history of its construction during the tour. The artists and metalworkers created and crafted the entire Rabbit as part of the design process and then had to dismantle the entire structure and piece it back together once on site in the Terminal.
According to the blurb on the web site: "The artist chose to make a sculpture of a rabbit to appear as though it was leaping from the outside of the airport - in- and because it is instantly recognizable but allows airport users to come up with their own story or answer to the question, 'Why a red rabbit?' "
What many people miss about this sculpture - especially those who don't have bags to claim - is that the bunny is actually jumping into a suitcase on the ground floor.
You can get a sense of the full scale of the rabbit and its suitcase here, thanks to having some travelers in the photo to provide additional context:
This sculpture quickly became an iconic symbol of the new Terminal among locals, and there's even a restaurant in Midtown that opened around the same time that's called The Red Rabbit.
posted by jms | 7:51 PM
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