Broken concrete lying among rail lines, blocks of road salt waiting for snow, birch growing in cracked limestone - all are remnants of forgotten urban characteristics. These neglected or obscure spots are not the the beautifying landmarks of Columbus we're used to seeing. However, they represent a side of the city that a new exhibit at the OSU Urban Arts Space aims to expose and explore.
The Monuments of Columbus came out of the collaboration of students, faculty and others in the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University. It looks at the city through piles and ruins in an effort to pay respect to, but still reinterpret with their own spin, the 1967 essay by Robert Smithson, “A Tour of the Monuments of New Jersey” that focuses on bridges, pipes and parking lots.
Smithson’s essay urged its audiences to look closely at the infrastructural landscapes supporting and defining cities and towns.
“The main goal is to expose and frame landscapes and sights in Columbus that have a particular idiosyncrasy, and sights that are in transition between industrial and post-industrial phases,” says Sarah Cowles, assistant professor in the Knowlton School. The project grew from a similar seminar that Cowles presented about landscape representation.
While Columbus is full of named districts, says Cowles, this work is to call out and represent the forgotten areas. The work on display includes inventories, mappings, experimental geographies, sonic tours and imagined and projected futures for the landscape of Columbus.
Specific areas include the Whittier Peninsula, Nelson Road Water Treatment Plant, The Salt Mountain, Columbus Coated Fabrics, Olentangy Underbelly and Spruce Yard.
There is a mix of art and analytical pieces strategizing how the landscapes could be used more productively, Cowles says.
The Monuments of Columbus is on display through Dec. 12 at the OSU Urban Arts Space, 50 W. Town St. For directions, hours or more information, visit www.uas.osu.edu.
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