On March 15, Wake, a giant animatronic sculpture created by area artist Mel Chin, will be installed in Asheville at 44 Collier Ave (on the South Slope) and celebrated with a family-friendly public opening from 2-5 p.m. Starting March 16, Wake will be open daily for visitors from 9 a.m.-9 p.m.
The 60-foot-long, 24-foot-high piece, which was built in Asheville and unveiled in Times Square last summer, was fabricated by Mel and a group of students at UNC Asheville’s STEAM Studio. It will be on display until Sept. 7 (when it moves to Sweden). Visitors are encouraged to walk through it, climb and sit on it, and more.
Here’s what to know about Wake and its visit in Asheville –
- The sculpture is a wooden replica of the USS Nightingale, which transported goods including weapons, tea, coal, and cotton, and was also used as a slaving vessel before it was taken by the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. The work is just the skeletal frame of the ship, plus its figurehead.
- The figurehead of both the ship + the sculpture is Jenny Lind, a 19th-century Swedish opera diva who was a sensation when she first arrived in NYC in 1850.
- Jenny, who was programmed based on the movements of a theatre student from UNC Asheville, sighs and moves her head.
- Originally, the installation was part of an immersive, augmented-reality experience in Times Square, called Unmoored, that Chin created with Microsoft. It was a comment on climate change and the effect rising seas will have oin cities like New York. Visitors could see Times Square flooding, with ships passing by above them and the (now shipwrecked) Wake in front of them.
- In Asheville, the piece’s context will shift – Mel and the arts community are hoping it will open conversations around climate change-induced migration (as Asheville and other mountainous areas could become refuges for people fleeing rising oceans), the role of public art in Asheville, and the history of the South Side and South Slope, two areas where longtime residents of color have been displaced as new businesses move in.
Want to know more about Wake and the artist behind the sculpture? Click the button below for more about this monumental work. ⬇️
Although Chin lives near Asheville (in Egypt Township, just outside of Burnsville), he doesn’t often show work locally. His large-scale projects have been on display in cities including NYC, Houston, New Orleans, and St. Paul, MN.
But after UNC Asheville named him the Black Mountain College Legacy Fellow for the 2017-18 school year, Chin began work on the piece with a team of UNC Asheville arts + engineering students. DYK: He was named a MacArthur Fellow in Sept. 2019.
Wake was commissioned as part of Mel Chin: All Over the Place, a multi-site survey of Mel’s works in New York City. After its run there, UNC Asheville’s STEAM Studio + The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina (CFWNC) collaborated to raise the funds needed to bring Wake here.
Besides the opening, more events are being planned around Wake. Follow the Asheville Area Arts Council’s updates to find out when + where they’re happening.
