Shel Silverstein only dreamed of the piece showcased at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Created in a collaborative process by the hard working members of Flux Foundation, Sidewalk’s End, an 80′ long, soaring installation piece involved the efforts of almost 50 builders and took a 40 person crew to set up and show for the two weekend festival.
Jennifer Cappuccio Maher/Staff Photographer
Skilled and experienced carpenters, lighting designers, metal fabricators and a myriad of geeks with skills in computer design, lighting, and all things technical took the opportunity to teach community members and neighbors with an interest in building, creation, and design skills development. Some of which had a basic background in the field, some completely new, but none of which had ever worked on a large scale project before.
We had the opportunity to chat with Johnny Poynton, a rambunctious, enthusiastic, relentless, dedicated, and dedicated leader (described as a “mix between Keith Richards and Flash”) and one of the Flux Crew about the experience of creating, building, and teaching on this project. “We couldn’t have done this without American Steel. The majority of the piece was built here. It gave us the space to really lay things out and see how the piece and the design emerged. The rest was built on site. Most of those new-comers would, and want to, do it again.” They will have the opportunity. Flux Foundation will be showing “Nina” at the upcoming Art + Industry Open Studios, at Maker Faire, and Sidewalk’s End will live on at other festivals.
Thomas R Cordova/Daily Bulletin
This amazing cast of characters included expert project management by Becky Neil, Lead Carpentry by Johnny Poynton, design consulting by Ben Anderson and nimble and steady-handed logistics and big-picture management led by P.K. Kimelman, Catie Magee, and Jess Hobbs. Paul Belger was Field Director, Thwen Chaloemtiarana led Metal Design, Wes Skinner led Misting System Design. They couldn’t have done it without the huge, enthusiastic, and dedicated group of volunteers and crew that came in to help, learn, and create. The thing that stood about about their interactions with visitors to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival? “People kept coming up and just saying ‘Thank You.” It was amazing”
Thank You Flux, for everything.
You can connect with Flux at weekly Thursday meetings at American Steel Studios from 7-9pm
Email : info@fluxfoundation.org
Facebook : FluxFoundation
Twitter : @fluxfoundation
Flickr : fluxfoundation and TempleofFlux
Build : Bay 3 @ American Steel
1960 Mandela Parkway (enter on 20th Street)
Oakland, CA 94607