Louisville artists offer a window to creatures’ underground world
Louisville artists Robyn Rathweg and Rita Vali will be giving people the opportunity to peer below the surface into the underground world. Walking from the bright sun to the cool shade under the McCaslin Boulevard pedestrian underpass in Louisville, residents and visitors will have the chance to get on “ground level” with creatures typically found below their feet.
This year, in collaboration with the Louisville Cultural Council and the city, Rathweg and Vali will be installing an immersive tile mural on the walls of the McCaslin underpass, showcasing an underground ecosystem of native wildlife.
“We’re both really interested in nature,” Rathweg said. “Because this underpass goes underneath McCaslin, we wanted to emphasize that and make people think about what it’s like to be underground because most of us spend our lives above ground.”
The mural will be made up of eight different panels acting as “windows” to the underground, Vali said.
Each panel is created using 500 to 600 handmade tiles that are cut out, fired, decorated and arranged to depict a scene in nature.
The cost of the project is $22,650 and is being paid for by the city through funds budgeted for public art. Vali said each panel takes about two weeks to complete.
“We have about 10 steps per tile by the time it’s done,” Vali said. “Isn’t that crazy?”
“This is a different style of mosaic because instead of taking random pieces and fitting them together in a way that works, we’re actually creating each individual piece,” Rathweg said. “We played a lot with colors.”
The mural will appear like a jigsaw puzzle, Rathweg said. Each tile is different in shape and decoration and needs to be arranged a certain way to create something whole.
Some of the panels feature animals such as prairie dogs resting in the burrows, ants marching in line through tunnels, and a salamander hiding in a hole.
Combining the realistic and the abstract, Rathweg and Vali decided to keep the colors of the creatures accurate but incorporate things such as purple soil and orange roots into the scene as well.
“We wanted something bright, we wanted colors so that the background was interesting because when people move through this tunnel, they’re going to see these ribbons of color,” Vali said.
“Every panel has purple, turquoise, and reds. They had to play nice against each other yet be able to showcase things like roots and animals. It was just a process of looking at hundreds of colors.”
Vali said she and Rathweg will dedicate four to 11 hours each day to the project, and they are close to having all eight sections complete.
With Rathweg’s background in drawing and painting, and Vali’s in ceramics, the two artists have combined their skills to create a cohesive installation.
As a biochemist turned ceramist, Vali hopes this project also will provide people with information about the underground ecosystem and inspire them to explore and learn more about the environment.
“The artists are diving deep into our local history and how best to portray our natural habitat,” wrote Louisville Assistant City Manager for Communications and Special Projects Emily Hogan in an email.
“The panels will form a narrative of underground flora and fauna of the Davidson Mesa area, which is a popular destination for residents and visitors. We anticipate completion of the mural sometime this summer and look forward to an opening ceremony.”
People can learn more about the project at louisvilleco.gov/exploring-louisville/arts-events/arts/public-art, or by visiting the project’s Facebook page at facebook.com/McCaslinUnderpass. People can also follow @McCaslinUnderpass on Instagram.