Thursday, March 3, 2011

Rise Up Roanoke




The Roanoke Star is the world's largest freestanding illuminated man-made star, constructed in 1949 at the top of Mill Mountain in Roanoke, Virginia. It was the largest star ever assembled until the El Paso Star was completed in El Paso, Texas. However, the Roanoke Star still holds the claim to the world's largest illuminated man-made free-standing star, as the El Paso Star lies flat on the ground. After construction of the star, Roanoke was nicknamed "Star City of the South".




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I wanted to give you some background information on the Roanoke Star before telling you about our trip to the Taubman Museum of Art. Yesterday, I took my mom and sister there to see the installation that is currently being built in the lobby. The installation is titled: CHARLIE BROUWER: RISE UP ROANOKE. It is a collaborative, site-specific installation built from ladders lent by the Roanoke community, creating a metaphor of all of their individual dreams and aspirations leaning on and supporting each other, rising up together in the museum atrium to form Roanoke's Star. Any company or individual could lend a ladder to be part of the installation. From the photos I took, you can see some painted ladders and some decorated ladders. There is a variety of shapes and sizes to the ladders. It was interesting and fascinating to watch. Once the installation is complete, I will take a photo of the completed star of ladders. The man in the photo several photos down is Charlie Brouwer.



























Charlie Brouwer
























5 comments:

Anne Huskey-Lockard said...

How cool! All the different ladders (even little Budgie Ladders!) and the paintings and then putting it all together...WOW!
Can't wait to see the finished product! (it would all be falling on me.....)

XXOO~~♥
Anne

Caterina Giglio said...

that last photo with the small ladder is priceless!!

Anonymous said...

Fantastic exhibit. Love the painted ladders and the star. Thanks for the history lesson too. xox Corrine

yoborobo said...

Wow! I love that big old star. :) And the ladders are amazing (I like the skelly one!). Happy weekend, Audrey! xox Pam

Jan said...

I've never seen so many ladders in one place in my life! How can someone make sense of all of this? leave it to an artist.......thanks for sharing.