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By Meredith Pack
Whether or not you’ve heard of Chicago-based artist Benjamin Ball, you or someone you know may find yourselves walking directly beneath his work on your way to catch your next flight.
The Denver National Airport just announced that they will be spending over $7.4 million on three new sculptural art pieces to be displayed throughout the concourses (the hallways between terminals), in accordance with Denver’s one percent for art program. One of the three artists chosen out of a pool of over 300 candidates was Benjamin Ball.
“It’s such an honor,” says Ball. “I’ve walked through this airport millions of times in my life. It’s surreal to think my work will be hanging here.” The Denver Arts, Workforce, and Aviation Services estimate that the sculptures will be under construction for approximately three years.
The Life of the Artist
After growing up a talented child-painter between Colorado and Iowa, Ball’s artistic career officially began when he received his degree in environmental design from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Once he got the exciting news that he’d been accepted into the prestigious Southern California Institute of Architecture, he knew he had to make the daunting leap from a small Colorado mountain town to the bustling city of Los Angeles.
“It was definitely intimidating, but it wasn’t a hard decision to make,” says Ball. “Even though I’d never been too far from home, I knew I had to leave to do what I loved.” Ball spent the next four years “relearning how architecture can depict the natural world.”
He has since founded Ball-Nogues Studio alongside fellow architect Gaston Nogues. The duo have since collaborated on sculptural work that “challenges the way [people] interact with nature.”
Ball now spends his time designing architecture and teaching at both the University of California, Los Angeles and his alma mater, the Southern California Institute of Architecture.
The Upcoming Piece
“Dance the Sky Softly” will be joining the Denver International Airport along with three other sculptures: Kipp Kobayashi’s “The Cosmology of Flight”, Danielle Roney’s “The Constellations”, and Thomas “Detour” Evans’ “It’s Not What You Take, It’s What You Bring Back”.
However, what sets Ball’s piece apart is its focus on combining the natural beauty of Colorado’s mountains and skies with the industrialism of the airport and its planes.
“I want to take the two aspects of Colorado that seem to exist on opposite sides of a spectrum and bring them together harmoniously,” says Ball. “This state is beautiful because of the mountains and the technology. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”
“Dance the Sky Softly” will be constructed from epoxy enamel and stainless steel. It will be 512 feet in length, 50 feet in width, and 16 feet in height. Although it’s expected to be “quite the undertaking”, all involved have faith that the sculpture will come together in time.
“I hope that when people walk by, no matter where they’re from, they think about their own relationship with the natural world and how it’s shaped them. As humans, we’re so drawn to nature, but when we bring technology to it, we think of it as existing in opposition. It doesn’t have to be that way. Life is about balance.”
