Construction starts downtown on Lexington’s largest ever public art piece
Fences are up and construction has started on a massive public art installation in downtown Lexington.
The sculpture, created by Los Angeles-based artist Benjamin Ball, is the largest public art piece ever commissioned by the city. It comes as part of the celebration of Lexington’s 250th anniversary.
The city spent $850,000 on the piece, which is expected to be complete by September. It also designated an additional $50,000 for future maintenance.
Titled ‘The Woven Path,’ the artwork features mirror-polished stainless-steel balls suspended with wire rope. Ball said it’s the size of a “small house” and will be a “mirror to the city.”
He said he has worked with the concept and materials before across the world, but the environment and push for development and revitalization in downtown Lexington drew him to work here.
“We need to have the individual hand in the creation of places. We need to have our attention directed into strange beauty and inexplicable encounters,” Ball said.
“Public art cuts against the grain of monotony in the urban environment. The built environment is constructed through a lot of regulation, a lot of industrial methods that are in place for financial reasons. Public art is that small cherry that allows the human mind to really explore and have freedom.”
Making art since childhood, Ball described himself as “an empiricist.” He doesn’t work with inspiration, he said, but uses the energy and offerings from each site he works on to inform his process of creation.
He founded his own art firm, Ball-Nogues Studio, in 2004 and has artwork everywhere from New Orleans to New Zealand.
Ball said he hopes his work will inspire people to inhabit the courthouse plaza and see it in a different light.
‘The Woven Path’ is about looking forward to the city’s future, Ball said, while still being informed of its past.
Ball works with weaving and knots in a lot of his work, finding contextual relationships between the knot and the place the art is installed.
He said Lexington’s newest sculpture will feature an equestrian-themed knot, but “the piece is not meant to foreground horses.”