ROAM
Jon Geiger was a 2016 Black Cube Artist Fellow. ROAM was a 26-foot-wide roving sculpture of an abstracted neon tumbleweed that traveled across Colorado’s Front Range over the duration of two years to five different sites with varying terrains.
This project was in partnership with the Museum of Outdoor Arts, the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, the City of Boulder Office of Arts and Culture, the Arts Hub, and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
ROAM
Jon Geiger
ROAM is a large-scale sculpture by Black Cube Artist Fellow, Jon Geiger. This 26-foot, abstracted, neon tumbleweed consists of five neon forms - illuminated individually to create a perpetual rolling movement. The sculpture is designed to move from location to location.
Site #1 - Marjorie Park at Fiddler's Green, 6331 S Fiddlers Green Cir, Greenwood Village, CO 80111
Site #2 - Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, 1600 Pierce St, Lakewood, CO 80214
Site #3 - Boulder's Central Park, 1236 Canyon Blvd, Boulder, CO
Site #4 - Arts Hub, 420 Courtney Way, Lafayette, CO 80026
Site #5 – University of Colorado Colorado Springs, 1420 Austin Bluffs Pkwy, Colorado Springs, CO 80918
ROAM combines three familiar icons of the American West – the billboard, neon sign, and tumbleweed. The tumbleweed's association with the Western film has come to represent desolate, dry, and uninhabited landscapes. Major highways and cities throughout the U.S. are populated with an array of billboards and neon signs, which stand as reminders of these forms of outdoor public advertising that flourished from the 1920s through the 1980s. While billboards mostly conjure up thoughts of commercial advertisements, they have also been used in a variety of ways in contemporary art. Geiger’s use of neon light references both the traditional, commercial use while simultaneously nodding to iconic artists, such as Bruce Nauman, who have worked with these materials.
For Geiger, both the tumbleweed and neon are also symbols of isolation, vibrancy, and commerce. He sees this work as a beacon with a “cold, soft glow that pulls in passersby like mosquitoes to a bug zapper.”
Special thanks to the Museum of Outdoor Arts, the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, the City of Boulder Office of Arts and Culture, and the Arts Hub for partnering on this roving exhibition. The Arts Hub exhibition is sponsored by Colorado Creative Industries, Lafayette Cultural Arts Commission, and the Lafayette Public Art Committee.
