In 2003, an art installation called “Moments” by local architect Carl Trominski was installed on the two retaining walls that flank the Lamar Bridge Underpass, between Lady Bird Lake and West 5th Street. Consisting of a series of angled blue panels suspended over the sidewalks with corresponding colored squares on the adjacent walls, over time the installation became faded and needed updating.
In late summer of 2018, the city of Austin’s TEMPO 2018 or “Temporary Mural Art Program” gave the installation a new look by turning the space over to internationally-recognized data muralist Laurie Frick. The project was the first in an initiative launched by the city’s Art in Public Places program to enlist local artists to re-envision existing public artwork.
Frick creates colorful, abstract works from collecting data sets. To create the colorful mural that now adorns this prominent Austin roadway, she dove into the data pertaining to tourism in Austin. After being struck by the numbers showing that more than 25 million people visit our city each year, Frick looked to Instagram to determine what people do while they’re here. She soon discovered that tourist often take pictures next to the city’s numerous murals.
Frick then determined what mural locations drew the most traffic and plotted their addresses on the walls of the underpass with colorful lines that reflect the different murals and the frequency of visits to them. To transform the blue panels that remain from the “Moments” installation, Frick teamed with Sheri Bingham of Iron Threads to turn them into “squishy comfy upholstered panels.” The panels are designed to correspond with the different murals as well.
Frick’s mural is one of 23 public artworks on display this year as part of TEMPO. The program also includes 10 sculptures and 12 murals displayed throughout each of the city’s 10 districts. The Lamar Boulevard installation is planned to remain up until August of this year.