Related Projects

Working with Buildings
  • LightPlay

    • A project using refracted light and other day/night lighting effects for a new mixed-use building

  • Terpsichore for Kansas City

    • Turning a 1000 car parking garage into a musical instrument in Kansas City, MO

  • The Benefit of Mr. Kite

    • Re-envisioning a walkway in San Diego, CA into a choreographed path of light and color

  • Terullian Mantle

    • A multi-part response to the International Day Parade of New York City’s Public School 89

  • Glove Cycle

    • Gloves go through a life cycle while leading passengers down into a Cambridge subway station

  • Pillars of Thought

    • Transforming architectural elements into guardians of thought in the Scottsdale Public Library

  • Drawn Water

    • A permanent piece at the Cambridge, MA Water Treatment Plant about where water comes from and where it goes

  • 300 Summer Street

    • An artist-owned live/work studio building in Boston’s Fort Point area with recycled steel plate sculpture for the public spaces

  • City at the Falls

    • A terrazzo floor and lighted ceiling brings the river and the city into the Louisville Convention Center

Temporary Installations
  • River Runes

    • A trail of installations focused on the river at Art Park

  • Submerge

    • Video collaboration by Mags Harries & Catherine Siller for Art on the Marquee at the Boston Convention Center

  • River

    • An illusionary river of water, light, and shadow

  • Lucid Moment

    • Bringing together light, liquid, movement, and space

  • Communal Well

    • A participatory installation in Hawaii about drinking water

  • Three Gardens

    • Domestic scale gardens make intimate spaces on the grounds of the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA

  • Playback

    • Reclaiming a derelict tennis court with sound and nylon straps

  • One Legged Table

    • Bringing communities to the table to discuss global warming

  • Border Garden

    • An installation at the La Jolla Museum of Art, CA about the Mexican-US Border, water, land, and immigration

  • Demon Trap

    • An installation where vacuum cleaners become Sin Eaters with poet Peter Finch in Wales,UK

  • Our Charles River

    • Exploring the connections between people, water and rivers

  • Solstice Iceland

    • An installation exploring the path of the Sun on the edge of the Arctic Circle

  • The Gallo Wars of Civitella

    • Video work by Mags Harries and Lajos Héder

  • Reclamation Art

    • Reclamation Artists Boston

Massachusetts
  • Portrait Chairs

    • Seats of honor for readers in Norfolk, MA

  • In the Dense Words

    • A book environment for a book distribution company

  • Glove Cycle

    • Gloves go through a life cycle while leading passengers down into a Cambridge subway station

  • Asaroton, 1976

    • Bronze garbage embedded in a Boston crosswalk commemorates a produce market.

  • Ben’s Circular Tower

    • A place for storytelling and imagination on top of Boston’s Mission Hill

  • Gateway

    • An oversized table creates a fanciful gateway in a Cambridge middle school

  • Drawn Water

    • A permanent piece at the Cambridge, MA Water Treatment Plant about where water comes from and where it goes

  • 300 Summer Street

    • An artist-owned live/work studio building in Boston’s Fort Point area with recycled steel plate sculpture for the public spaces

  • The Bay Circuit Trail

    • A community project traversing the “Emerald Necklace” surrounding Boston

  • Submerge

    • Video collaboration by Mags Harries & Catherine Siller for Art on the Marquee at the Boston Convention Center

  • Winding Down the Charles

    • A performance piece in Cambridge, MA about the length of the river and time

  • Speed of Light

    • Mags’ students illuminate the future route of transit connecting eight communities around Boston

  • River

    • An illusionary river of water, light, and shadow

  • Lucid Moment

    • Bringing together light, liquid, movement, and space

  • Three Gardens

    • Domestic scale gardens make intimate spaces on the grounds of the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA

  • One Legged Table

    • Bringing communities to the table to discuss global warming

  • Our Charles River

    • Exploring the connections between people, water and rivers

  • Reclamation Art

    • Reclamation Artists Boston

Light, Sound & Peformance
  • LightPlay

    • A project using refracted light and other day/night lighting effects for a new mixed-use building

  • Terpsichore for Kansas City

    • Turning a 1000 car parking garage into a musical instrument in Kansas City, MO

  • SunFlowers, An Electric Garden

    • Sculptural solar collectors provide shade and lighting for a bike path

  • Passage

    • A multifaceted project for the new South Mountain Community Library, connecting people through words to the landscape of South Phoenix

  • Pillars of Thought

    • Transforming architectural elements into guardians of thought in the Scottsdale Public Library

  • The Bronx River Golden Ball

    • An annual event in the Bronx and Westchester Co., NY, where the ball focuses diverse communities on the river

  • Light Gate

    • Glass laminated with prismatic film captures the sunset for the Centennial Art Project for Manhattan Beach, CA

  • Submerge

    • Video collaboration by Mags Harries & Catherine Siller for Art on the Marquee at the Boston Convention Center

  • Lucid Moment

    • Bringing together light, liquid, movement, and space

  • Playback

    • Reclaiming a derelict tennis court with sound and nylon straps

  • One Legged Table

    • Bringing communities to the table to discuss global warming

  • The Gallo Wars of Civitella

    • Video work by Mags Harries and Lajos Héder

Man from City Hall

  • Location: Boston City Hall, First Night Celebration, Boston, MA (1989/1990)
  • Client: First Night Boston
  • Size: 97′ x 37′
  • Materials: Billboard construction, scaffolding, lighting, video, and live performance
  • Performers: actors, singers, poets, and percussion ensemble
  • Collaborators: Bill Wainwright, Joan Brigham, Doug & Chris Fitch, Ruth Hamilton, Caleb Sampson and the Alloy Orchestra, and Ken Field
  • Photo Credits: Kathy Chapman
  • Artist: Mags Harries

The Voice from City Hall

the eyes moving during the performance

A bowler hat and jaw were added to the iconic architecture of Boston’s City Hall, transforming the building into a character in Boston’s First Night festivities for New Years Eve.  The design incorporated direct elements of the building’s architecture: the Council Chamber windows were used as the Man’s eyes and a steam vent became the Man’s smoking cigar. Man from City Hall served as a vehicle for audience members to address questions to a second character, The Oracle–created by the artist Bill Wainwright. The performance parodied City Hall politics and confusion of city bureaucracy. changing the windows of the Council Chamber into the Man’s eyes, projected with animated video.

The Man and the Oracle

The Question Raiser accompanying the Oracle

Participants from the First Night crowds were raised by scissor lift 30 feet up into the jaw of the Man, the stage from which they addressed The Oracle. While talking, video of the right and left profiles of the Question Raiser were projected into the eyes of the Man as though two people were talking to each other.  The Oracle’s responses were created impromptu by a group of poets and issued in a slow ominous voice accompanied by percussions and opera singers. Between questions the animated eyes of the Man perused the crowd below.

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