Operation: Bomb Central by the BombShells

I’m a bit late to this party, but I have to share some photos of Operation: Bomb Central by the BombShells, the latest public art project by Cincinnati’s ArtWorks. I think it’s only up for another week or two so, if you haven’t yet seen it in person, get yourself to the border of downtown and OTR stat.

You may have seen a few yarn-bombing installations earlier this year, on historic statues, at the Contemporayr Arts Center and even at the Great American Ball Park. Is this their finale? I don’t know.

This temporary installation is made up of sewn, knitted and crocheted pieces that decorate trees and street furniture on Central Parkway, especially its typically underutilized median. Banal elements such as lightposts, planters and trash cans have become beautiful elements in the landscape.

I especially love the fact that it suddenly looks like everything is covered by a cozy, which is a sweet way to mark the start of autumn. We wouldn’t want this trash can to get chilly, now would we?

The BombShells have covered a Metro bus with their psychedelic work, and it looks so cool.

On the corner of Central and Jackson, the column in front of the ArtWorks office acts as a sort of title graphic for the installation, with “BombShells” on one side and “ArtWorks” on the other. So, to the countless people who have been referring to this as graffiti, I have to say, no, this is clearly a sanctioned public art installation. I mean, duh…

If the column didn’t make matters obvious enough, this didactic further clarifies and credits the project. Nice cross stitch lettering!

I love that this pig [left over from the Big Pig Gig, I’m guessing] is all snug in a colorful, seasonally-appropriate cozy.

We actually saw all this while it was being installed but, alas, we were on our way back from the vet and couldn’t stop to take photos. It was pretty funny to see a bunch of women [and a few men] in their campy quasi-disguises, and then seemingly just as many press people conducting interviews and photographing the hoopla-in-progress.

Operation: Bomb Central coincided with the annual MidPoint Music Festival, building on its roaming audience and activating a normally neglected public space. It was great to see people other than dog walkers on the median in the middle of Central Parkway. This year, MPMF included the MidPoint Midway, which filled a few blocks of 12th St. in Over-the-Rhine with installations inside and around box trucks [my favorite was A SkateAble Solution], food and beverage vendors and a small music stage. More of this kind of stuff, please!