PEORIA, Ill. – An item that has been a part of the Peoria International Airport for decades on the move…in more ways than one.
A metal sculpture by artist George Rickey has been moved to the main terminal entrance from the baggage area at the airport, where it sat for eleven years.
It originally was installed at the old terminal entrance 45 years ago.
“(Rickey) was a very well-known artist that involved movement and geometric figures,” said Gene Olson, Director of Airports. “If you come out and notice our sculpture out front, it’s two rectangles that move with the wind, and they’re mounted on bearings. When they move, you would swear that they’re going to run in to each other, but they actually miss.”
If Rickey isn’t an artist you are familiar with, maybe you should be, according to one official.
“He stopped painting altogether, and moved in to this idea of sculpture,” said Bill Conger, Chief Curator, Peoria Riverfront Museum. “In 1951, George Rickey invented, essentially, the first modernist kinetic sculpture, a sculpture that moves.”
A ceremony re-dedicating the sculpture was held at the airport Thursday. Olson says he hopes visitors can maybe use it as a way to help break up the nerves associated with flying, or perhaps as one of a many of a number of ways the airport helps welcome new visitors to the city.
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