City Of Fort Worth: Flight Sculpture Dedicated At Hemphill Connector

Press release from City of Fort Worth:

November 11, 2021

Dan Corson’s Flight, commissioned by the Fort Worth Public Art program for the Hemphill Connector, was dedicated on Wednesday evening.

The artwork, sited between West Lancaster Avenue at Lamar Street in downtown, and West Vickery Boulevard at Hemphill Street in the Near Southside, celebrates Fort Worth’s aviation history and links the pattern of migrating birds with those of jets in flight formation. The artist translated the city’s Molly longhorn icon into a contemporary expression of pattern and movement that enhances the experience of traveling through the Hemphill Connector.

View a brief video about the sculpture. 

Dozens of abstract longhorn/birds resemble a flock flying from underneath the railroad and interstate bridges that span the connector. Each of these identical components is 12 feet long and made of robust, translucent polyethylene with a frosted white finish. From dusk to dawn, they glow with internal LED lighting which Corson has programmed with 60 variations of colors and patterns that slowly shift.

On the downtown side, the freestanding sculpture features 28 longhorn/birds supported by five painted steel poles, with the tallest 35 feet tall. Another 34 longhorn/birds are suspended from the I-30 bridge beams with some emerging out from under the connector toward the Near Southside.

Corson is an internationally recognized artist whose large-scale immersive installations and public artworks often engage the viewer as co-creators. Originally trained in theatrical design, Corson’s artworks are infused with drama, passion and layered meanings that transform from day to night in mesmerizing ways.

Photo: A detail of Flight by Dan Corson. (Photo by Dall Brow)

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This press release was produced by City of Fort Worth. The views expressed here are the author’s own.