13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Sculpture takes flight over downtown

Sculpture takes flight over downtown

Richard Essex/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - There was a strange sight across the Indianapolis skyline Sunday - artwork hanging from a helicopter.

A stainless steel sculpture called "East Gate/West Gate" was lifted from the Indianapolis Museum of Art - its home since 1973 - and carried by helicopter along the White River to the IUPUI campus downtown.

"It's stainless steel and it's some of that modern art that people are always trying to do that you really don't know what it is," said one observer at IMA.

The sculpture is made up of 2,000 pounds of stainless steel wrapped around and around up and down.

"It's a bunch of big loops seemingly in a continuous loop. It doesn't have a beginning nor an end," said another observer.

After years of sitting in the open and on display, the endless loop of pipe that attracted attention with its ordinary shape and unusual design was ready to move.

"It's pretty good, you know, there are just a few marks here and there that you would expect from an outdoor sculpture," said the IMA's Lynsay Lord.

After removing the bolts that held it to the ground, a crew from IMA prepared the mass of tubes for flight.

"We will have straps attached to the larger two elements," said the IMA's Mike Bir.

After hours of strapping, taping, double strapping and triple checking, the sculpture was ready to head south.

"But there is no question this is so much more exciting to have this thing travel by air," said Bir.

On cue from the ground, the helicopter crept over the museum grounds, hooked up and moved out. Up over the trees and down the river.

"I'd love to be hanging onto it," said one person in the crowd.

The flight of stainless steel tubes took about 10 minutes from liftoff to touchdown, which was enough time for a crowd to gather at IUPUI. The artwork finally came to rest on the lawn on campus, nestled between buildings and sidewalks.

The sculpture is on loan to the university. It will be installed by the Engineering and Technology Building and is one of four pieces of art the IMA has placed on the IUPUI campus.

"It will be nice to see a change of scenery around here," said an observer at IUPUI.