Seven Moon Junction

Artist: Shinique Smith

Neighborhood: Downtown

Location: Dewey Square Park  

Location

Dewey Square Park

185 Kneeland St

Boston, MA 02111

United States

42° 21' 12.7116" N, 71° 3' 16.2504" W

See map: Google Maps

Medium: Oil Paint mural

Time Frame: Thursday, August 28, 2014 - Sunday, March 1, 2015

Description:

The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy has commissioned Shinique Smith (American, born in 1971) to create a new 70-by-76-foot temporary mural, titled Seven Moon Junction at Boston’s Dewey Square Park on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, which will be installed over seven to ten days, September 8-18, and be on view for a year. Smith’s Greenway mural is one component of her interdisciplinary exhibition, “Shinique Smith: BRIGHT MATTER” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston including painting, sculpture, full-room installation, video, and performance. “Shinique Smith: BRIGHT MATTER” can be viewed at the Museum August 23, 2014 – March 1, 2015.

Artist's Statement: In Seven Moon Junction, I have used a detail from my 2013 painting ‘Seven Moons,’ because its circular composition and color palette and the geometry of the building felt as if they belonged together. I shifted the scale of the painting’s collage and counterbalanced them with a braided sculptural element to enrich the texture and create a composition tailored to the architecture of the Dewey Square wall. This particular work draws inspiration from various sources such as, alchemy, astrology, music and the mythology and art of indigenous cultures. By taking a small aspect of this existing work and enlarging it to the scale of 70 feet, this microcosm of materials is seen and experienced from a new perspective, becoming a distinct new presentation. I see this piece, as a mural that extends beyond the wall, as it attunes to the space in which it sits, radiating energy outward to the rest of the city and its occupants. Inspired by the flow of the environment, I will orchestrate a performance of music, art and dance on the green space that is an extension of the mural inspired by the spirals and color in the design. I’ve titled this work, Seven Moon Junction in reference to the intersection where the mural resides, the merging of people and the joining of art and life. The field of view, Dewey Square Park is part of the mural. Artist's Inspiration Seven Moons (2013)—which serves as inspiration for Smith’s Seven Moon Junction Greenway Wall mural—is centered by a constellation of fabrics patterned with bursting fireworks and flowers. The work features a disposable coffee cup lid whose black form suggests the abstracted face of traditional African masks. Such subtle suggestions of ritual—at the personal, social or cosmic levels—reflect Smith’s broader interest in the ways different cultures seek to harness and direct energy.

Greenway Wall Dimensions 70-by-76-feet Total Gallons of Paint Required To ensure the mural’s colors are true to Seven Moons, approximately 40 gallons of the highest-grade, classic, oil-based sign paints are hand mixed to match Smith’s original artwork.

« Back to Top