100 Acres: Team Building (Align) by Type A

Team Building (Align) by NYC-based artistic duo Type A is one of the many outdoor sculptures at 100 Acres in Indianapolis. It consists of two large rings hung among trees, whose shadows align perfectly during the summer solstice.

When Adam Ames and Andrew Bordwin of Type A were invited to create a sculpture for the park, they initiated a series of team-building encounters with members of the staff at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The resulting sculpture is a physical manifestation of that process, but a large part of the creative intent is intangible and shared only by the participants.

Each circle measures 30 feet in diameter, which was the size of the circle created when the group held hands, and this simple form represents working as a group. While the sculpture is installed overhead, the shadows can be inhabited, creating shifting territories.

Read more about this sculpture here.

While perusing Type A‘s work, another project caught my attention: Barrier, a site-specific installation based on the ubiquitous Jersey barrier, which has been exhibited in several locations over the past four years, most recently at Cornell University’s Johnson Museum of Art in Ithaca, NY:

The pieces are reconfigured each time to dictate spatial behavior in a new way. Here’s the installation at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA:

It’s a smart commentary on the insidious ways in which these structures direct and control our use of a physical site. Typically used to block and protect entrances and public spaces, Type A‘s barriers have a slight curve that gives them a quiet, utilitarian beauty and allows for many possible configurations.

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