Windwheels #9 - Salt Lake City, UT - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures on Waymarking.com

Windwheels is one of many art sculptures created by Darl Thomas. It is a wind activated kinetic sculpture created out of stainless steel. It is an impressive structure, measuring 18' x 4' x 10'. It stands on a single pole with two circular plates protruding on arms. One plate is solid, the other resembles a donut. Parallel to, and on both sides of, these plates are windwheels that have six spokes, with a half-circular cup on the end of each spoke.

Windwheels #9 stands in front of Fire Station #9, located in the International Center; a business park situated directly west of the Salt Lake City International Airport. The fire station is located at 5822 West Amelia Earhart Drive.

Darl Thomas has a number of public art commissions and art exhibitions, primarily in Utah and Colorado. On his website Darl gives a brief introduction into how he chose this medium as an artist:

"When I was a kid, around the corner from my house was a steel fabricating company everyone called the Steel Plant. I would go over there with a couple of wheels and ask them if they had something I could use as an axle for a wooden push car.

They would come back with a nice bar drilled and fitted with cotter keys, washers and just give me this stuff. Thanks again, guys. There was a very tall tower in the middle of the yard used to move all different shapes and sizes of metal around like I-beams, angles, plates and circles. On Sundays, no one was around. I would go over there and climb this tower. You could walk out on either end of this very long bridge-like structure and just hang out.

That exposure must have had some effect on me."

TITLE: Windwheels #9 ARTIST(S): Darl Thomas DATE: 1/1/1987 MEDIUM: Stainless Steel CONTROL NUMBER: IAS UT000114 Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link] PHYSICAL LOCATION: Fire Station #9 5822 West Amelia Earhart Drive Salt Lake City, UT 84116 DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH: Two edits of note: On both the base of the sculpture and on the artist's website, the art piece is titled with the plural "Windwheels #9", while it is listed in the Smithsonian inventory as a singluar "Windwheel #9. The other is the dimensions of the art piece is listed on the inventory as: "Approx. H. 18 ft. x W. 8 ft." On the artist's website, he lists the sculpture's dimensions as 18' x 4' x 10' For clarifications, the artist's website is: http://www.darlthomas.com/ Thanks!

Visit Instructions:
Please give the date of your visit, your impressions of the sculpture, and at least ONE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH. Add any additional information you may have, particularly any personal observations about the condition of the sculpture.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   07/28/2011 Chasing Blue Sky visited it