Public Art Projects
East Bank Greenway Scrapbook
Ghost Ballet for the East Bank Machineworks
Alice Aycock. Ghost Ballet. Riverfront Park view of Ghost
Ballet, Trinity Building, Shelby Bridge. Ian Myers, 2008.
Alice Aycock. Ghost Ballet. Riverfront Park view, night
shot with test lighting. Gary Layda, 2007.
Alice Aycock. Ghost Ballet. Alice Aycock. Ghost Ballet. Day
shot from Broadway. Gary Layda, 2007.
Alice Aycock. Ghost Ballet. Alice Aycock. Side-view from
Shelby Bridge. Jim Hagen, 2007.
Alice Aycock. Ghost Ballet. View from Shelby Bridge.
Allison Reeves, 2007.
Ghost Ballet Nomination to American for the Arts—2007 Year in Review of best public art
In 2007, Alice Aycock installed Nashville’s first Percent for Public Art commission on the bank of the Cumberland River, opposite the downtown. Titled Ghost Ballet for the East Bank Machineworks, the 100’ x 100’ x 60’ sculpture perches on a crane base once used to launch barges. The artwork references the site’s industrial past and visually echoes current surroundings, including nearby bridges and the NFL Titans stadium. Its dynamic form conveys a sense of the area’s evolution from industrial working river to recreation and entertainment, a theme that resonated with Aycock after her first site visit. “I immediately warmed to the sense of how you can make something that doesn’t ignore what had been there, but builds on the past in some way.”
The main structure of the sculpture is comprised of arced, red-painted steel trusses that twist upward from the crane base to form a disconnected spherical shape. On the ground, a red-painted aluminum “turbine whirlwind” serves as a visual generator for the swirling trusses above. At night, a glowing neon fixture illuminates the sculpture’s center.
Aycock sees the piece as a work of static animation. “It changes as you move around it,” she says. “It suggests a certain kind of movement, dance movements, which is why I refer to it as a Ghost Ballet.”
The highly-visible location and prominence of the sculpture has citizens calling it the “newest landmark on the Nashville skyline.” Aycock’s work directly addresses the project goals to symbolically and visually connect the east and west sides of the river and engage pedestrian viewers both day and night, while also capturing the spirit and pride of Nashville.
Project renderings: Ghost Ballet
Alice Aycock. Ghost Ballet. Rendering for East Bank
Greenway public art project. 2005.
Alice Aycock. Ghost Ballet (night view). Rendering for
East Bank Greenway public art project, 2005.
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© 2008
Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission 800 2nd Avenue South, 4th Floor P.O. Box 196300 Nashville TN 37219-6300 |
Page revised: 05 May 2008 arts@nashville.gov (615) 862-6720 fax (615) 862-6731 |
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