Client: Grand Rapids Park District

Completion date: 2009

Artwork budget: $20,000

Project Team

Artist

Deborah Adams Doering

DOEprojekts

Artist

Glenn N. Doering

DOEprojekts

Other

Kendall College of Art and Design Students

Overview

“Code for the Grand River” was a public art project installed next to the Grand River in Grand Rapids, MI. The project stretched the entire length of Ah-Nab-Awen Park — 600 feet — and was approximately 100 ft at its widest point. Ecologically-sensitive outdoor athletic paint and large stencils were used to create this public work.

Goals

The goals for the project included using DOEprojekts' Coreforms to express river nomenclature in a way that would engage the public in an outdoor setting. Each of the nine forms that were stenciled on the riverbank related to key river terms such as wave, riffle, eddy, chute, hole, horizon line, vee​wave, undercut, pillow.

Process

DOEprojekts' lead artist Deborah Adams Doering and collaborating artist, Glenn N. Doering, enlisted the help of Kendall College of Art and Design students to install this large public project over the course of 3 days. The project remained highly visible for approximately 4 weeks; after 4 weeks, the project faded from the landscape over a period of another 3-4 weeks.

Additional Information

DOEprojekts' Coreforms (such as zero, one, hyphen, tilde, and period) and cultural Keywords (such as Art, Memory, Nature, Place, Text, etc.) are points of departure for our site-specific installations/sculptures that may be temporary or permanent. We create experiences and artifacts that are of interest to both the "art knowledgeable" and the "art curious."