Celeste’s Journey Completes City Hall Artwork

Ali and Bonnie With Celeste. Photo by Stepanie Fitzgerald

The second part of Rockville’s newest work of art, the Spirit of Discovery, was installed on the lawn of City Hall last Thursday, December 16, 2010. The snow storm made the drive from Northern Virginia slightly precarious, but artists Bonnie Fitzgerald and Ali Mirsky carefully navigated the truck around the Beltway from Bonnie’s studio in Vienna to complete the artwork on schedule.

Celeste In Place For Transport. Photo by Stephanie Fitzgerald.

Celeste Being Carried. Photo by Stephanie Fitzgerald.

Celeste Arrives In Front of City Hall. Photo by Stephanie Fitzgerald

If you have seen the 170-square-foot glass mosaic depicting a spinning nebula on the facade of City Hall which was installed last month, you might not have realized the Spirit of Discovery was not complete. The artwork is comprised of two separate but connected pieces. In the garden area below the mosaic, a sculpture of a young girl now looks up at the nebula through a telescope. The artists named her “Celeste”. She weighs about 350 pounds and has a welded armature with a unique polystyrene sculpted base coated in several coats of concrete covered by pieces of glass. She looks to the future with an old-fashioned telescope - a salute to the past and discovery in the future.

Celeste Complete. Photo by Stephanie Fitzgerald.

Bonnie explains what the artists hope we will take away from viewing the artwork:

Rockville was founded and built in the spirit of discovery. Every time you look at the installation it looks different, always something new to discover about the artwork. Because of the materials we used the reflection will always be different. Hopefully Celeste inspires an interest in science and an interest in embracing discovery. Ideally a passerby would be able to admire the artwork solely based on the quality of the art, the colors and the sculptural form, which we feel is easily relatable. This is not conceptual art, the message is simple and the sculptural form really helps paint that picture, regardless if the viewer knows the mural is a nebula. It is contemporary art. There is a story; it speaks to the past and present, but regardless if you know the story or not, one will still be able to enjoy the intricate details and beautiful colors of the mosaic. We hope that our work will intrigue the viewer and cause them to take a moment to pause and absorb the artwork.

Celeste Standing. Photo by Cindy Cotte Griffiths

When Ali and Bonnie originally presented the installation concept for Spirit of Discovery to the Art Commission they used the tag line:

Rockville: where opportunity and discovery intersect

Since the Spirit of Discovery was commissioned to commemorate all of the City’s 150 incorporated years, the artists took a thorough and creative look at Rockville, as Bonnie explains:

After a lot of research into Rockville’s past and present we learned Rockville has always been a place of great opportunity. And needless to say there are countless “things” to discover about Rockville, from interesting people to physical beauty, cultural activities, a commitment to education and community - just to name a few.

With this tag line, these artists might have solved our branding quandary which they couldn’t help but notice and would like to help resolve.

Telescope. Photo by Cindy Cotte Griffiths.

Now that the installation is complete, Bonnie admits to missing the work. Perhaps this is why the artists are toying with the idea of continuing their work with Celeste by creating an interactive social media presence so that Celeste could give science lessons or talk about outer space. If such a project involved local schools, kids could be inspired beyond her physical space at City Hall. In my mind, I could see such a project involving the Science Café and the effort to build a Science Center in Rockville. If Rockville Central can help, we’d be all over it!

Celeste Finally At Home. Photo by Stephanie Fitzgerald.

Celeste is certainly a welcome addition to the City of Rockville and I look forward to discovering with her in the future.

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