Photos courtesy of Short North Alliance
The Short North Arts District is evolving, but with the growth and updates come construction materials, blocked lanes and lot of the color orange.
In light of the renovations, Carol Boram-Hays, a local artist and Columbus College of Art & Design assistant professor, is making pop-up art installations for the ShortPop, a new program by the Short North Alliance that displays temporary sculptures in the public area. Inspired by the construction, Boram-Hays collection of orange barrels and cones do not dictate traffic patterns but create thought-evoking works.
One of her large creations stands at the corner of North High and West Goodale – behind the Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse. Titled Erosion, it includes four mounds of stacked orange barrels; some clusters reach higher than others and crushed barrels are places around the base of most mounds. The second installation can be viewed near Skully’s Music-Diner on High Street. Titled Cascades, this creation displays 80 orange cones waterfalling onto the nearby hedges.
In a recent press release, executive director of the Short North Alliance, Betsy Pandora, discussed the new installation by Boram-Hays.
“We are thrilled to host her work on and off High Street throughout the Short North Arts District,” says Pandora. “In addition to creating sophisticated artworks out of very unsophisticated materials, Carol’s profound expertise has enabled us to image ways that ShortPop could continue beyond the construction year.”
Boram-Hays received the materials from a donation by The Paul Peterson Company with support from The Ohio Arts Council, Greater Columbus Arts Council and Columbia Gas of Ohio.
“I am very pleased to have this opportunity to work with the Short North Alliance,” Boram-Hays says in the recent Short North Alliance press release. “It has been an exciting challenge to work with new materials and explore the opportunities they present to reflect on the rapid changes going on in the Short North.”
Boram-Hays work will be on view Aug. 1 through Oct. 31. To learn more about the ShortPop sculpture series, visit www.shortnorth.org/shortpop.
Lydia Freudenberg is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com
About the Artist: Courtesy of Short North Alliance
Carol Boram-Hays is an Assistant Professor at Columbus College of Art & Design. She teaches African art history and contemporary art and design and culture. A sculptor and installation artist, Boram-Hays has exhibited work nationally and internationally and has been featured in The New York Times, Landscape Architecture, and Sculpture. Boram-Hays has won a number of national and state awards and completed an artist residency in Dresden, Germany. For more information, visit carolboramhays.com.
