MAPLE ST. CONSTRUCT
  • About
  • Exhibitions
    • 2019 >
      • No Road Most Traveled
      • POST-NOVIS
      • Pairings
    • 2018 >
      • KATHY
      • Above The Silos
      • THE BLUES
      • To Be Pigeon Holed
      • The Fool's Journey
      • Wall Assembly
      • The Map and its Porcelain Goat
      • Loose Landing
      • Long Ago, Far Away
      • Victories Over The Sun & Campus Stories
      • Perspective Flood
      • Falling Vertical
    • 2017 >
      • Textured Blue
  • WRITINGS
  • PRESS
  • CONTACT
THE BLUES
Mike Nesbit, 2018
Concrete
Black Contemporary, Ames, IA


THE BLUES is a community-involved architectural and art installation situated amongst the ruins of structures of a defunct 1979 seed-drying facility in Ames, Iowa. The installation initiates a dialogue between art, the landscape, and the post-industrial environment.
 
THE BLUES is a literal approach to representing the transcendental high skies of the Midwest by pushing artistic techniques with precast concrete through the introduction of color as a means to produce abstract work that contextually captures the sublime scale of the region’s skies while situated within an underutilized site.
 
In total, there are four (10’-0” W x 12’-0” H) architectural precast panels in this installation. Each panel is a unique combination of a custom blue concrete pigment and white concrete.  The precast panels for THE BLUES were produced in Omaha, Nebraska and transported to the site in Ames, Iowa. With the help of a local farmer and his equipment, the panels were hoisted from the truck and strategically placed on steel A-frames amongst the ruins of structures of the defunct seed-drying facility. The placement of the panels allows visitors to the site the opportunity to wander through the agrarian facility of industrial and machine-like structures and confront these mysterious blue and white concrete objects.
Photos Courtesy of Mike Nesbit Studio: © Taiyo Watanabe
​About the Artist:
Mike Nesbit is a fine artist based in Los Angeles.  With a background in architecture, his multidisciplinary trajectory greatly informs his artwork, allowing Nesbit to explore areas between art and architecture with a focus on technique, repetition, and representation. Nesbit has participated in solo and group shows throughout the United States.  He received a Bachelor of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles and played four years of professional baseball with the Seattle Mariners.
www.mikenesbit.com
  • About
  • Exhibitions
    • 2019 >
      • No Road Most Traveled
      • POST-NOVIS
      • Pairings
    • 2018 >
      • KATHY
      • Above The Silos
      • THE BLUES
      • To Be Pigeon Holed
      • The Fool's Journey
      • Wall Assembly
      • The Map and its Porcelain Goat
      • Loose Landing
      • Long Ago, Far Away
      • Victories Over The Sun & Campus Stories
      • Perspective Flood
      • Falling Vertical
    • 2017 >
      • Textured Blue
  • WRITINGS
  • PRESS
  • CONTACT