Elevated Prairie
APD Forensics Center and Central East Substation, ongoing
During this time of year, Elevated Prairie, created by the collaborative group of Legge Lewis Legge, is teeming with life. The Blackland prairie plantings offer a show of varied colored flowers, bees and butterflies supping on blooms, a juvenile garden snake hidden in the tall grasses, and occasionally a common mouse. Just a few months ago, this earthwork consisting of steel planters, benches, grass berms, and native plantings along the front lawn of the Austin Police Department Forensics Center and Central East Substation appeared dead.
This latest Art in Public Places acquisition (which forms a labyrinth in the shape of a fingerprint) pays tribute to the once diverse flora and fauna of this Blackland prairie region so dramatically altered by the continued urbanization in East Austin over the last several decades. By participating in the selection of Elevated Prairie, the APD have become holistic land-management stewards and public art custodians, both responsibilities to be commended.
The uncontrollable nature of the plantings diverges from the expected control of a forensic investigation while both the earthwork and the center deal with the inevitable: the life/death/life cycle. Elevated Prairie will eventually resume its death mask while the seed heads left on the spent blooms will provide food for wintering birds. There is not a lack of life in these planters, just as there is not a lack of information in the evidence collected by the forensic personnel – both require patience, an understanding of cycles, and a desire to investigate deeper.
More can be found on the artists at www.leggelewislegge.com.
This article appears in June 3 • 2005.