‘Tis the Wind Bonner + Stayner
Title: ‘Tis the Wind
Location: Boston, Massachusetts (Poe Square)
Date: 2011
Client: Edgar Allan Poe Foundation & Boston Arts Council
Project Type: Public Art
‘Tis the Wind is participatory project that rejects the representation of a figurative monument. The proposal, a permanently installed memorial to Edgar Allan Poe consists of a small, freestanding triangular glass pavilion in Poe Square, adjacent to the Boston Common.
The interior of the kiosk contains a collection of Edgar Allan Poe related items on exhibition and for sale. The corrugations of slumped glass are both structural and provide shelving for the display of objects. In the absence of an historical building related to Poe’s time in Boston, the sculpture is intended to function as a cenotaph meets “gift shop,” as a Wonderkammer, and as an interpretive center or place-maker for a schedule of gatherings, meetings and activities related to the fraught relationship between Poe and his hometown of Boston. As a central figure in the creation of an American popular culture, the memorial to Poe actively engages in the economy of desire and consumption.
Collaboration with Christian Stayner
Design Team: Jennifer Bonner, Christian Stayner