Air Waves
1994
Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Air Waves was flown above Harvard on the opening evening of the sound and light installation Canopy in the trees of Harvard Yard in May 1994. The pilot circled Harvard Yard six times.
DW recalls:
‘One morning, standing outside my studio at the Carpenter Center, I heard a light aircraft overhead and looked up. The plane was towing an ad that said: YOUR MESSAGE HERE followed by a telephone number. I ran inside, jotted down the number and picked up the studio phone. When I spoke to the pilot I asked him if he could help me make an artwork by flying a poem over Harvard Yard. He said: “Sure – but keep it shorter than 40 letters and spaces – it will fly better that way.”
WORDS OF AIR OPEN TO THE EAR was the new translation of a fragment of Sappho verse I developed with the help of Justin Broackes, Professor of Philosophy at Brown University.
