Saturday, November 24, 2018

TSPGH: Robot Repair Shop



Already tickled from having had the time to peruse the "cabinets of curiosities" from the Carnegie Museums, imagine my delight at continuing along the concourse to discover this installation from Western Pennsylvanian artist Tobey Fraley (1980- ). Okay, to be perfectly honest, at first I thought it was a robot-repair shop that hadn't opened for the day yet. Wait, what? Then I recognized the distinctive round robot bodies from a statue at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh from when I interviewed three years ago (post and pic here). Fraley had originally made the diorama for a 2011 public art campaign. It came to the airport in 2015 and, just to keep things interesting, he changes things up sometimes. It is "Still the world's only in-airport repair shop!" I tried to capture just few of the neat little details, such as the authentic "PA State Inspection" sign hanging in the back (below, left), the La Brea Waterproofing Tar, and the Eclipse Oil: "As dark as the night is long." (below, right). Pittsburgh, you continue to surprise me.



Editor's Note: Other Pittsburgh posts you might like: these murals, this summer festival, or this local-history group.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your comments let me know that I am not just releasing these thoughts into the Ether...