Commisioned Public Works

To encourage community participation, the Yankowitz and Holden team developed an interactive poetry walk in Cleveland Ohio. People, walking along or sitting at the site activate electronic sensors and hear Talking granite Spheres speak poetry from admired poets who had lived, worked, or wrote about Cleveland. The spheres are surfaced with embossed texts and appear skidding to a halt and leaving behind imprints of poems inlaid along the granite paths for visitors to read. One sphere is reserved for contemporary Cleveland poets to share their talking texts with others in the community. Another proposes Two spiral shaped ribbons, 26 ft. H. x 7 ft diam. comprise the Double Helix structure. LED lighting is programmed to view digital texts that explain the importance of medicinal plants. 

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“A realized project that has received particularly wide acclaim is Garden of Games/Garden of Scientific Ideas, commissioned by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs' Percent for Art program for the two 3,000 sq. ft. rooftops of a New York City public school. The Garden of Scientific Ideas incorporates a wide variety of interactive, cast-bronze sculptures based on scientific instruments, including a sound wave magnifier, a "Newton's Cradle," and a parabolic image generator; the Games garden, constructed of granite mosaics inlaid in limestone tables and benches, features chess and backgammon playing boards.  They rest on colored pavers that echo the game board theme, as do further, geometric sculptural elements, some of which double as seating.   Among the project's distinctive features is an oversized clock that sends out shifting patterns of light through a perforated stainless steel grill that revolves across its face.”   Nancy Princenthal