| Emory A. Hebard State Office Complex 1999 • Newport, Vermont This installation both engages people visually and brings the natural world inside. Andrea Wasserman and Elizabeth Billings conceived the project and managed a team of five artists including Jeffrey Sass, Eric Oberg and Carl Bielenberg to produce four integrated yet separate pieces of work for the Emery A. Hebard State Office Building in Newport, Vermont commissioned by the Vermont Arts Council. The pieces include a Memphremagog salmon weathervane; a carved granite trout; a kinetic leaf sculpture in the main atrium of the building; and wood etched glass panels in the second floor lobby. At the peak of the clock tower is a sculpted salmon weathervane. The fish acts as a focal point and landmark visible from anywhere in town. The heavy gauge copper weathervane, practical and decorative, tells us the wind direction, an indication of the coming weather and creates a visual landmark. Below the weathervane on the same vertical axis in the main atrium of the building is a kinetic sculpture composed of four large veneer beech leaves inside the two-story entranceway. Suspended one above the other from the ceiling the leaves continually move with the circulating air currents, continually shifting in relationship to each other. Rarely static though sometimes moving almost imperceptibly, the piece from the second story landing is viewed as a multitude of leaf forms and viewed from below as if a carpet of leaves in a hardwood forest were hovering above, sinuously shifting in space. The stem of each leaf is sculpted out of lightweight copper. The laminated birch veneer leaves were formed in large custom fiberglass molds with an interior core of fine fiber glass fabric. |
  
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