Spiraculum 2005

Airside C Terminal
Tampa International Airport
Hillsborough County Aviation Authority, Florida

Dimensions:
Overall: W.36’x 120’ (1097 x 3658 cm)

Materials:
Stone and glass in epoxy matrix.

Project Description:

A circular motif, like an eye, as the key to our thinking. To see, to wonder and to think is the goal. The Terminal charged with interactive elements that offer a distinct dialogue in a unique way for all.

Spiraculum is comprised of a series of mosaic medallions laid into the white terrazzo floor of the AGT shuttle departure lobby. Imagine passengers just landed. They are awaiting the shuttle. In these moments of stasis after great speed passengers are now standing again on the earth, almost, for the white terrazzo is cloudlike.

On this floor are round apertures that become windows into two realms for the viewer.
Some of the medallions are openings to the sky…. a mnemonic for where the passengers have just been…and others are openings to land and water…. the state, county, city, rivers, bays, Gulf and sea which beckons the visitors onward.

The floor as whole suggests an intermediate zone between sky and earth. A special place between worlds. The mosaics are visually opulent. They are evocative of the environment above and beyond.

These medallions become portals for the eyes and mind.
The medallions are complementary to the scattering of the round lighting in the ceiling above.

Spiraculum invites the curious to venture beyond the visual immediacy of the Airside C Terminal. With the “eyes” of the medallions, the eye of the beholder is offered new abilities to perceive. The moment, so vital to us all, is given new meaning.

Spiraculum is created of glass and stone tesseri embedded in an epoxy matrix. The medallions were drawn in New York and translated into mosaic in Rome, Italy by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel with the master craftsman, Mario Ietto of Sectile.