FLIP, FLIP, FLOW
OCEAN SOLE AFRICA’S ANIMAL SCULTURES ARE A HIT AT ARTS FESTIVAL
People can’t seem to stop themselves from touching the large brightly colored animal sculptures at the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival. They want to find out what they’re made of.
“They’re foam,” one woman says. “They’re rubber,” another says to the man with her.
Foam? Rubber? Whatever you want to call flip-flops.
The figures are made by the organization Ocean Sole Africa from discarded flip-flops that have washed up on the shores of the Indian Ocean and other waterways in Kenya.
They’re here through Sunday, the last day of the 60th annual Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, which spreads through Gateway Center, Point State Park and the Cultural District, Downtown. Admission to the 10-day event remains free including music ranging from country to funk on three stages and the U.S. premiere Sunday in Point State Park of “Origami,” a fusion of public art and contemporary dance from the French company Furinkai.
You have until Sunday to add your oneminute message for the future to artist Toby Atticus Fraley’s “The Pittsburgh Time Capsule” in Gateway Center (free). Copies of the compilation of videos will be given to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and to the Mayor’s Office of Pittsburgh and they will be opened in 2120.
Also don’t miss taking a spin in “Los Trompos” (“The Tops”), five colorful whirling artworks by Esrawe + Cadena Studio, a cross-disciplinary design atelier located in Mexico City. They were installed Saturday in the park near the concession stands after a slight delay due to shipping setbacks.
“Los Trompos” has been a big hit since its arrival, says Sarah Aziz, festival director and program manager of festivals and special projects for the presenting Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. So much so that some
ground rules had to be established.
The “tops” are designed for four to six children or adults to sit inside while someone on the outside spins them. They are not to be climbed upon or hung from. “We explained that an artist designed these, an artist built them. These are art. And then their perspective changes.”
The public artworks are accessible from noon until 8 p.m., as is most of the festival. That led to some disappointed adults after the Saturday evening concert, who told Ms. Aziz, “We were waiting for the kids to leave. The kids were monopolizing them.” One told her, “I’m going to come down on my lunch hour. I bet there won’t be any kids there then.”
While “Los Trompos” will be packed up after Sunday they’re staying in Pittsburgh because they were commissioned by, and made for, the Cultural Trust, which now owns them. Watch for them at future Trust events.
Another festival favorite, the Ocean Sole Africa mother giraffe, has also been purchased by the Trust and will remain here.
Countless selfies have been taken next to the giraffe family of four on the Gateway Center lawn. A baby elephant and a large tortoise are at the Penn Avenue entrance to the Artist Market, and a little rhinoceros has been moving around the festival footprint.
Jonathan Lo, an Ocean Sole artist who came to Pittsburgh to help with installation of the sculptures, said it takes two artists eight days to complete a sculpture the size of the smaller giraffes.
A metal armature forms the skeleton of a figure. The flip-flops are first glued together to strengthen them and then cut to desired shapes and attached. Edges are angled so the parts bind when joined. Narrow areas, like giraffe legs, are solid flip-flops. Styrofoam is used to build larger areas, like the bodies, to keep the pieces lighter. As artists work, they may carve the colorful shapes as with notches in an elephant’s trunk.
The intent is to make the animals look naturalistic in stance, and a large part of that is achieved by employing the skills of artists from an eastern Kenyan tribe that traditionally carved in wood but have switched to flip-flops, Lo said.
Animals represented are those found in Kenyan parks and safari animals, he added. The organization also accepts special orders.
The nonprofit is sensitive to the environmental component of its work. It pays a group of women who go to the beaches weekly to pick debris and take it to a recycling site. The flip-flops are sorted and cleaned, and Ocean Sole buys them by the kilo.
Flip-flops include those discarded in Kenya, but they also wash in from all over the world when the tides are high, Lo said.
The festival gift shop, located at the entrance to Point State Park, has a number of Ocean Sole Africa items ranging in price from $5 for a keychain-sized piece to $330 for a bigger sculpture. They’re selling well, as is limited-edition merchandise commemorating the festival’s 60th anniversary year. There are also small toy spinning tops for “Los Trompos” fans.
For information visit https://traf.trustarts.org .