Related Projects

Transportation & Travel
  • 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

  • The Zanjero’s Line

    • A recreational path along 4 miles of the Highline Canal in South Phoenix, AZ

  • Arbors & Ghost Trees

    • Bus stops and shaded arbors as markers of transformation and memory along a major road in South Phoenix, AZ

  • Glove Cycle

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

  • Wall Cycle to Ocotillo

    • A trail of 20 sculpture sites mitigating between 5 miles of highway and neighborhoods in Phoenix

Massachusetts
  • Man from City Hall

    • Boston City Hall becomes a giant character for First Night celebrations

  • 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

  • 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

Speed of Light

  • Location: East Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Somerville, Cambridge, Fenway, Roxbury, South Boston (Evening of May 1, 1994)
  • Size: 20 mile connecting route
  • Materials: Bicycle riders; 8 spotlights; light sticks; suitcases with community artifacts, portraits of residents, and stories told from each community
  • Budget: $4,500
  • Artist: Mags Harries

The Urban Ring

Logo for the Speed of Light Tour

Many of the Boston’s surrounding towns and neighborhoods are cut off from each other without direct transportation.  In September 1993 students of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts accompanied a group of architects, urban designers, and residents on an informal tour of the proposed ring around Boston — The Urban Ring.  From this meeting evolved the Speed of Light Tour, a multimedia evening bicycle ride through eight communities on Boston’s periphery, a public art event. It  highlights the need for lateral mass transit between the participating communities.

Lights

The Speed of Light Tour began in East Boston at sundown and finished in South Boston. A spotlight was beamed into the sky at the arrival of cyclists at each destination along the route, locating each community in the Boston skyline.

Community Collections

Cyclists carried with them suitcases representing each of the eight communities. The suitcases contained artifacts, pictures, and stories from each community.  At each spotlight, new cyclists and a suitcase would join the tour.

Today’s Urban Ring

Today the Urban Ring project is still in the planning phase, conducting extensive research. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority has planned a series of improvements to the existing transit lines to create shorter transit trips and few transfers. The plan also calls for connections with pedestrian and bicycle paths.

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