Monochrome for Austin - Austin, TX
Posted by: 
Raven
N 30° 17.247 W 097° 44.227
14R E 621454 N 3351312
Designed by Nancy Rubins, this 50-ft tall steel and aluminum abstract sculpture of roughly 75 boats and canoes can be found on the University of Texas at Austin's main campus. It was dedicated in January 2015 at a cost of $1.4 million.
Waymark Code: WMNKP3
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/30/2015
Views: 4
"When [University of Texas at Austin] students came back for the spring semester [in January 2015], they were in for one hull of a surprise.
Greeting them was a 50-foot-tall structure composed of roughly 75 boats, suspended from a steel framework by a mass of cables. The sculpture, outside the Hackerman Building, looms over the corner of Speedway and 24th Street and features canoes jutting out at all angles.
The structure, completed [on January 17th, 2015], is the newest piece in the Landmarks collection, which is the University’s public art program. The piece, called “Monochrome for Austin,” was designed as part of a larger collection by Nancy Rubins, and it cost $1.4 million to produce, including the cost of materials, labor and payment to the artist.
A portion of the boats used in “Monochrome” were damaged boats donated by boating rental companies, according to Nick Nobel, external affairs coordinator for Landmarks. The rest of the boats were bought specifically for the project.
The structures in the collection are made to stand soundly in any part of the world, but “Monochrome” was constructed specifically to withstand Austin’s heavy winds, according to structural engineer Jaime Garza. Garza, a UT alumnus, assisted Rubins in the piece’s construction.
A small percentage of the capital cost of new construction and major renovations of campus buildings is allocated toward funding of Landmarks projects such as “Monochrome,” as per a UT System policy, Art in Public Spaces, which was instituted in 2005. Nobel said the allocation is augmented by private contributions and support from foundations.
The funding used for “Monochrome” came entirely from private funding garnered as part of the overall cost of the Hackerman Building, which opened in 2009 and cost $219 million. Nobel said no money came from tuition funds."
Source: "
The Daily Texan" student newspaper (January 22nd, 2015)
More detailed information about the artist and sculpture can be found on UT's Landmarks Commission website.