By Julia Foy:
Over the past few weeks, Buffalo has experienced, on-again/off-again coatings of fresh snow, marking the beginning of another unpredictable winter season. This yearly change in temperature and landscape prompts everyone to don wool sweaters, mittens, and fuzzy socks whether they're heading for the ski slopes or planning a sledding adventure at Delaware Park. As for daily routines, once bundled up, you find neighbors working industriously to keep snow off their sidewalks, driveways, and cars. As a Buffalonian, the sight of snow is commonplace to me, and to be frank, can be somewhat of a nuisance. After all, who really wants to wake up twenty minutes early to plow their driveway and brush off their car before heading off to work?
This is the exact mindset that is helping to inspire Sergio Lopez- Piñeiro to create his moving sculpture in Olmsted's Front Park this winter. Working as an assistant architecture professor at the University at Buffalo, the Madrid native has teamed up with the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy and the New York State Council of the Arts to transform the topography of Front Park and change the way the average person looks at snow. Lopez- Piñeiro has recently begun to create a spatially geometric formation of fifteen mounds of snow, all centered about the statue in the heart of Front Park's parking lot. The fabrication of snow hills around eight-flower beds and within a half ellipse will be a season-long endeavor, recorded with time-lapse photography from above.
Lopez-Piñeiro sees our harsh and snowy winters in a more encouraging light than most, describing seeing a lake iced over and being able to walk on it as an "intense experience." He fully admits that a Buffalo winter can be severe, but he simultaneously appreciates the interesting qualities that the addition of snow brings. In his eyes, the blanket of white is just a natural trait of Buffalo winters, created by our surrounding lakes and distinctive weather changes. He savors the snows' transformation of the landscape of our city, muffling sounds and changing the way we react to its surfaces; people stop respecting designated pathways, and walk around as they please.
For most, snowplowing is seen as purely practical and is done with no aesthetic or spatial motivations, but rather as a job to be endured. However, Lopez-Piñeiro has gained inspiration from the beauty of the winter landscape, specifically the mounds of snow created by that same mundane plowing. This inspiration prompted him to publish a photo essay in the journal 'Places.' Numerous Buffalo parking lots were featured in this essay, depicting the unintentional beauty of snow mounds that have been pushed to the side. With the photo essay as a starting point, Lopez-Piñeiro aimed to create a more controlled and aesthetically focused grouping of hillocks in Front Park.
The design for this moving sculpture in front park will provide visitors on the ground framed views of the city and surrounding landscape. Located at one of the highest points in the city, Front Park provides the perfect setting for visitors to enjoy such picturesque panoramas. Lopez-Piñeiro is very interested in not only the aesthetic quality of his piece, but also the unintended uses that will occur as a result. As an architect, Lopez-Piñeiro is accustomed to defining a space implementing known materials, quantities, and use of the final product. For this project, he had to make educated guesses on the amount of usable snowfall the area would receive, and had no idea how park patrons would use his creation. The social interaction of people and animals with the piles is still unknown to him. Lopez-Piñeiro has expressed interest in 'defining a frame' and seeing what happens inside of it. His example of building a sandbox and 'whatever happens in that sandbox, whatever is invented within, and whatever roles people take inside it,' reiterates that concept.
Nicole Halstead, a junior in the architecture program, helped Lopez-Piñeiro create a video demonstration of the sculpture in Front Park. This video gives some idea as to what the park will be transformed into, and what the possible time-lapse photography may look like. As of right now, it is unsure what the final piece to this project will be. Lopez-Piñeiro is debating a short movie or book, but is more focused on the enjoyment of the novel space created within the park than on the final presentation of the project.
This project may serve as an example for future like-minded individuals to create projects in the city that make people rethink the ordinary. Buffalo would benefit from more projects that put a positive light on our ever improving city. Hopefully this winter season will dump large quantities of snow on Buffalo to help Lopez-Piñeiro achieve his vision to its fullest, and to inspire others to follow in his footsteps.
This ambitious project would not be possible without the help and support of: Nicole Halstead, Joy Testa, Stan Jennings, Cathleen Henna, Brian Dold, Bob Stotz, Kevin Hanna, Bert Baez, Andy Raab and Thomas Herrera-Mishler. Funded by NYSCA (New York State Council on the Arts).
Combo - moving art work, by Blu and David Ellis
View image
Over the past few weeks, Buffalo has experienced, on-again/off-again coatings of fresh snow, marking the beginning of another unpredictable winter season. This yearly change in temperature and landscape prompts everyone to don wool sweaters, mittens, and fuzzy socks whether they're heading for the ski slopes or planning a sledding adventure at Delaware Park. As for daily routines, once bundled up, you find neighbors working industriously to keep snow off their sidewalks, driveways, and cars. As a Buffalonian, the sight of snow is commonplace to me, and to be frank, can be somewhat of a nuisance. After all, who really wants to wake up twenty minutes early to plow their driveway and brush off their car before heading off to work?
This is the exact mindset that is helping to inspire Sergio Lopez- Piñeiro to create his moving sculpture in Olmsted's Front Park this winter. Working as an assistant architecture professor at the University at Buffalo, the Madrid native has teamed up with the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy and the New York State Council of the Arts to transform the topography of Front Park and change the way the average person looks at snow. Lopez- Piñeiro has recently begun to create a spatially geometric formation of fifteen mounds of snow, all centered about the statue in the heart of Front Park's parking lot. The fabrication of snow hills around eight-flower beds and within a half ellipse will be a season-long endeavor, recorded with time-lapse photography from above.
Lopez-Piñeiro sees our harsh and snowy winters in a more encouraging light than most, describing seeing a lake iced over and being able to walk on it as an "intense experience." He fully admits that a Buffalo winter can be severe, but he simultaneously appreciates the interesting qualities that the addition of snow brings. In his eyes, the blanket of white is just a natural trait of Buffalo winters, created by our surrounding lakes and distinctive weather changes. He savors the snows' transformation of the landscape of our city, muffling sounds and changing the way we react to its surfaces; people stop respecting designated pathways, and walk around as they please.
For most, snowplowing is seen as purely practical and is done with no aesthetic or spatial motivations, but rather as a job to be endured. However, Lopez-Piñeiro has gained inspiration from the beauty of the winter landscape, specifically the mounds of snow created by that same mundane plowing. This inspiration prompted him to publish a photo essay in the journal 'Places.' Numerous Buffalo parking lots were featured in this essay, depicting the unintentional beauty of snow mounds that have been pushed to the side. With the photo essay as a starting point, Lopez-Piñeiro aimed to create a more controlled and aesthetically focused grouping of hillocks in Front Park.
The design for this moving sculpture in front park will provide visitors on the ground framed views of the city and surrounding landscape. Located at one of the highest points in the city, Front Park provides the perfect setting for visitors to enjoy such picturesque panoramas. Lopez-Piñeiro is very interested in not only the aesthetic quality of his piece, but also the unintended uses that will occur as a result. As an architect, Lopez-Piñeiro is accustomed to defining a space implementing known materials, quantities, and use of the final product. For this project, he had to make educated guesses on the amount of usable snowfall the area would receive, and had no idea how park patrons would use his creation. The social interaction of people and animals with the piles is still unknown to him. Lopez-Piñeiro has expressed interest in 'defining a frame' and seeing what happens inside of it. His example of building a sandbox and 'whatever happens in that sandbox, whatever is invented within, and whatever roles people take inside it,' reiterates that concept.
Nicole Halstead, a junior in the architecture program, helped Lopez-Piñeiro create a video demonstration of the sculpture in Front Park. This video gives some idea as to what the park will be transformed into, and what the possible time-lapse photography may look like. As of right now, it is unsure what the final piece to this project will be. Lopez-Piñeiro is debating a short movie or book, but is more focused on the enjoyment of the novel space created within the park than on the final presentation of the project.
This project may serve as an example for future like-minded individuals to create projects in the city that make people rethink the ordinary. Buffalo would benefit from more projects that put a positive light on our ever improving city. Hopefully this winter season will dump large quantities of snow on Buffalo to help Lopez-Piñeiro achieve his vision to its fullest, and to inspire others to follow in his footsteps.
This ambitious project would not be possible without the help and support of: Nicole Halstead, Joy Testa, Stan Jennings, Cathleen Henna, Brian Dold, Bob Stotz, Kevin Hanna, Bert Baez, Andy Raab and Thomas Herrera-Mishler. Funded by NYSCA (New York State Council on the Arts).
Combo - moving art work, by Blu and David Ellis
Fabulous. Embrace your assets, Buffalo, and think big. This installation reminds me of Maya Lin's body of work, undulating waves, at Storme King: www.stormking.org/2009_exhibition.html