bobbycaputo:

Recycled Bike Part Chandeliers Under a Texas Overpass

Ballroom Luminoso is a series of six chandeliers designed by artists Joe O’Connell and Blessing Hancock currently installed in San Antonio, Texas. Made from custom made structural steel, custom LEDs and recycled bicycle parts, the lights project colorful silhouettes of sprockets and other pieces onto the otherwise drab cement underpass. From the artist’s statement about the project:

Ballroom Luminoso references the area’s past, present, and future in the design of its intricately detailed medallions. The images in the medallions draw on the community’s agricultural history, strong Hispanic heritage, and burgeoning environmental movement. The medallions are a play on the iconography of La Loteria, which has become a touchstone of Hispanic culture. Utilizing traditional tropes like La Escalera (the Ladder), La Rosa (the Rose), and La Sandía (the Watermelon), the piece alludes to the neighborhood’s farming roots and horticultural achievements. Each character playfully rides a bike acting as a metaphor for the neighborhood’s environmental progress, its concurrent eco-restoration projects, and its developing cycling culture.

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I’ve only driven by this lonely little park before, but today the sun glinted off of something golden near the back of the park and I swear it looked like a monument to C-3PO. So I stopped to investigate. While I was disappointed that the monument was actually a tribute to a Peruvian Admiral who died in 1879, I’m glad I stopped. The park is very serene and beautiful and my favorite flowers grow like weeds in the grass.