Needles and
Thread

Client
City of Nashville
Location
Nashville, TN
Size
450 Linear Feet (east & west sides of bridge)
Completion date
October 2013

The site-specific Art-in-Transit installation for Nashville's 28th/31st Avenue Connector Bridge is part of a new "complete streets" transportation corridor. The integrated public artwork explores the tradition of quilting as a metaphor for building community.

Intended to reconnect two formerly separated neighborhoods and diverse cultural areas, the artwork unites the community in many ways. A series of knots appear to sew together quilt blocks, interpreted in large metal panels. Sculptural "thread" made of bent stainless steel tubing is woven in a rhythm moving across hundreds of linear feet of structural screen wall, visually tying the quilt patterns and connecting both sides of the bridge.