Needle and Spindle is a work of art comprised of two sculptures. The sculptures refer to the history of the North Goodman St. neighborhood, once a center of textile manufacturing. The adaptive reuse of the site for residential and retail and its incorporation into the Rochester Art Walk have signaled another change in the areas of urban history. The transformation of historic textile tools, a needle, and a spindle, into elegant sculptures, reimagines the history of the site for its contemporary context. The two sculptures are made of 1/2” diameter stainless steel rods. At 26’ in height, the sculptures are scaled to the street where a traffic median has been redesigned and necked down to serve as their pedestal. The sculptures are part of the roadway and a pedestrian crosswalk infrastructure that passes between them. The two sculptures create volumes which fill with sunlight during the day and will be illuminated with LED light at night. The ensemble of sculptures serves as a beacon for the activities of Art Walk, making a visual connection to University Ave and the Memorial Art Gallery, in Rochester. The simple infrastructure of the roadway has been made into a pedestal for the sculpture that extends to the surrounding community.
