Shuttles - The Common Thread
DATE | 2020
LOCATION | Greenville, SC
MEDIUM | Concrete, Metal
DIMENSIONS | 120ft x 195ft x 52ft
The Common Thread is a site-specific, multimedia public art installation at Camperdown Plaza in Greenville, South Carolina, created by principal artists Yuri Tsuzuki, Vivian Beer, and Deedee Morrison, with supporting artists Tobin Hines, Russell & Doug Smoak, and Mike Utter. Inspired by Greenville’s “rich textile history,” the project uses “re-imagined and oversized textile sculptures” to tell a story of the “legacy and importance” of the textile industry.
Goals
Camperdown was developed as a mixed-use district surrounding a 1.5-acre central plaza, with the development deliberately reconnecting contemporary Greenville to the history of Camperdown Mills and the city’s identity as a textile center. The project is deeply connected to the history of its site. Camperdown occupies the former location of Camperdown Mills, whose textile operations began in the 1870s and became part of Greenville’s identity as a center of textile production. The redevelopment deliberately reconnects that industrial history with contemporary downtown life through public space, architecture, and art. Within that context, Beer’s shuttles make industrial history physical and participatory. A tool becomes a monument, a monument becomes a seat, and the history of labor becomes something the public can enter.
Additional Information
Beer’s contribution is a trio of monumental Shuttle Seats, transforming a fundamental textile tool into sculpture, architecture, and public furniture. Her shuttles bring her longstanding investigation of infrastructure, industrial material, and the body into the collective project. A machine component designed to carry thread through a loom becomes a place for people to sit, gather, and interact. Textile infrastructure becomes public infrastructure. Beer’s shuttles emerge directly from her long-running Infrastructure series, which considers “ubiquitous architectural public works through the public/intimate format of benches.” Here, she enlarges the shuttle into a human-scale experience, transforming an industrial tool into a place for gathering. The three approximately 10-foot-tall shuttles combine steel frames with cast concrete seating and join the larger installation’s oversized textile tools, machinery, lighting, sound, and interactive elements.