It was a crisp, cool November afternoon. The sun was shining, and the wind wafted softly through trees straining to grow from within steep canyons. A group of people sat in a sprinkling of folding chairs, a classroom's worth of young children lingered before a colorful steel sculpture.

        Another place, another time, this might be a bucolic bird's eye view of a community taking the sun on an autumn afternoon. But this is New York City less than two months after the events of Sept. 11. And the assembled are paying tribute to the sculpture “Baroque Trajectory,” by Michael Poast, standing only three blocks from Ground Zero, a proud survivor of the terrorist attacks.

Artist Michael Poast works on his sculpture "Baroque Trajectory," which was moved to Hamilton Friday after withstanding the fall of the WTC towers in New York City. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        “We had nice weather, but there were still fumes and gray dust covering the buildings,” Mr. Poast said. “The way they had the podium set up, when I looked up at the crowd, I could see the ruins of the World Trade Center behind them. It was intense. I dedicated the piece to the victims and to the ongoing creative spirit. To the future.”

        This week, Mr. Poast, a Warren County native, will finish installing “Baroque Trajectory” in the 265-acre Pyramid Hill sculpture park in Butler County. The piece will begin its five-year stay here in time for the one-year anniversary of Sept. 11.

        “It is a symbol,” said Harry Wilks, park owner and philanthropist. “It represents the time and the event. There are a lot of artists and pieces of sculpture but very few at the time and place of this piece.”

        “Baroque Trajectory,” a seven-foot-tall collision of painted steel angles, was inspired by the work of Italian Baroque sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini. Mr. Poast, who is also an avant-garde classical composer, created the piece to function as a musical instrument.

        “I play the steel using hammers, mallets and other percussion instruments,” he said. “It actually has different tones and sounds — a resonance. The color and the sound of the steel hook up to create this notational relationship: The blue areas are slower tempos, deeper sounds; the red areas are very intense, very fast and rhythmic with mid-range tones; and the yellow is fast, high-pitched and more metallic.”

IF YOU GO

Where: Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum    Address: 222 High St., Hamilton    Phone: (513) 868-8336    Web site: www.pyramidhill.org    Hours: Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. every day but Mon.    Admission: $3 adults, $1.50 children 5-12, free for 4 and under, Tues.-Fri. $4 adults, $1.50 children 5-12, Sat. and Sun.

        At “Baroque's” November inauguration — it had been installed at Trinity Place in July 2001 — Mr. Poast played the piece for the small group of people who dared to venture downtown.

        “It was very important,” said Erin Donnelly of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, one of the piece's sponsors. “People came downtown to Lower Manhattan for art.”

        “The celebration humanized a vacated section of the city,” said Adrian Sass, parks department project coordinator. “There's a slight irony that something intended to be so temporary has outlasted something meant to be so permanent.”

        Although “Baroque” remained intact, it did suffer damage. The piece was dissembled in New York and shipped by truck to Butler County. Mr. Poast flew in last week to bring the sculpture back to life.

        “If you look at it long enough you begin to see the different colors — blues, purples, orange-yellows and the layers — blue over red, orange on top of green,” he said, caressing the piece near the ugly scars of silvery steel showing through the paint. “All these angles and jagged edges made from industrial materials now have a poignant quality. So much industrial scrap was being pulled from the building site. When I was down there I saw semis hauling the debris away. It was all these gigantic pieces of steel that related to my piece. People couldn't believe “Baroque” was still standing, but they were equally awed by its relationship to these gigantic I-beams.”

        It's easy to see the sculptor's affection for his piece. There's something very Richard Harris about Mr. Poast. He seems a boyish King Arthur with blue eyes and a goatee, a red polka-dot cap with the visor turned back and midnight blue work clothes as clean as a cat. He smiles easily and becomes animated, moving his arms and head to mimic the curves of “Baroque.”

        As he welds the structural steel or adds quick brushstrokes of paint, lyrical movements emerge. There is a quick tempo to this postmodern piece and a sense of hope and an affirmation of life that is not reduced now that the piece stands in Pyramid Hill.

        “It evokes both the vicissitudes and joy of life,” Mr. Poast said. “The sweeping forms and pure colors represent sound in space.”

        The melding of artistic disciplines has always been a part of Mr. Poast's repertoire. Born in 1952, he attended University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music and the school of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning at the same time. In his early 20s he moved to New York, where he lives today. He attended Mannis School of Music, classes at the Art Students League, earned an MFA from the City University of New York and moved to a concentration in three-dimensional work when he learned to weld. He has taught at the Juilliard School of Music and currently teaches painting and sculpture at Pratt Institute. While he continues to make art, he is part of the Intermedia Ensemble, which performs multi-disciplinary pieces such as visual operas.

        “I compose these color music scores and have performances with dancers, musicians, media artists and actors,” he said. “We perform with the score projected on a large screen to show the connection of the visual and musical. When you look at "Baroque,' you are looking at a score. Not a linear score, but if you follow the pattern, you can see it.”

        The move of “Baroque” to Pyramid Hill went smoothly. In fact it took less than two months from the time Mr. Poast applied to put the piece in to its arrival by truck.

        It has been installed as part of the park's rental program whereby artists receive a small fee to display work for five years. During that time, the piece may be sold, but Mr. Wilkes retains right of first refusal.

        The breathtaking combination of natural landscapes adorned with monumental artwork is hard to beat. The site selected for Baroque is near George Sugarman's “Cincinnati Story” at the far end of the Gallery Loop. It sits in a tree filled-area adjacent to a field on the crown of a grassy knoll.

        “We have started to commission a number of pieces,” Mr. Wilks said. “Several are on the way. We are adding new pieces to create a history of sculpture from antiquities to the work of today.”

        Mr. Poast lovingly continues his work on “Baroque.” He doesn't seem a bit bothered by the thunder that has begun to rumble nearby or the 90-degree heat.

        “ 'Baroque' has a new home. I am very pleased,” he said.

        “Baroque Trajectory” will be fully installed by Tuesday.
       

150-mile oil pipeline carries worries to lush central Ohio
Tennis worker recalls terrifying trip
Enduring sculpture finds second home
Area residents urged to conserve water
Obituary: Museum's curator Sterling Cook Jr. 'extraordinary'
Officials: Dockside best bet for bucks
Tristate A.M. Report
Unity fest gathering meant to heal
BRONSON: Racial paranoia
CROWLEY: Kentucky politics
HOWARD: Some Good News
PULFER: Federal research
Activists test creek for waste
Democrats make strides into GOP-held ground
Turtlecreek targets building site
Common genetic abnormality often undetected
Ex-officer's wife had multiple stab wounds
Rail tower closes after nearly century
Recent grads enter 'real world'
State fair's haunted house spooks some firefighters
Students dig into archaeology class
Additional child molestation charges filed against Howell
Boone Co. fair kicks off fun
Fighting a river of trash
Man charged in roommate's death