As I was walking in the Woodward Esplanade, on my way to the J.P. Morgan Stage at this weekend’s Detroit Jazz Festival, a flash of bright silver caught my eye.
The sun was coming in and out of the fluffy white clouds in the sky.
Perhaps it was a reflection of the sunlight off the metal-trimmed windows of a nearby skyscraper?
I looked up and what I saw made me smile.
What a cool art installation!
Silver-colored pigeons made of chrome were hung above the walkway of the esplanade across two city blocks in downtown Detroit.
Let’s Fly Away
Flight, created by the husband and wife team of Steve and Dorota Coy at the Hygienic Design League, is the first large-scale installation along the esplanade.
According to the July 2017 article by Curbed Detroit, the artists
…studied the pigeon in various positions of flight and decided to create an installation that captured that suspended motion.
Over 200 pigeons are part of the work, some perched along arches, even street crossing signals, while other pigeons have their wings partially-folded or spread outward in flight on the horizontal wires about ten feet above your head.
On the north end of the installation is a bird cage with it’s door open, perhaps suggesting the birds escaped the cage?
I don’t know how long the installation will be at the Woodward Esplanade; plans are to have rotating installations.
If you’re in downtown Detroit in the next few weeks, near Woodward and Larned, take a walk along the Woodward Esplanade and look up!
