Dedicated sculpture also serves environmental purpose

Rarely do sculptures double as solutions to environmental problems.

But Michael Roy Layne, a sculptor from Raleigh who works on environmental projects, constructed “H2O Flow” as an example of how functional art can be.

The work — made from 2,400 pieces of bamboo — was dedicated on Friday outside of Chapel Hill Town Hall.

“My own environmental sculptures also bridge the gap between nature and culture, as this piece shows,” Layne said.

The bamboo structure was built into part of the landscape of the wooded area outside Town Hall. Layne said it serves a means to slow and disperse rainwater that was degrading the land.

“The public art program here in Chapel Hill really strives to integrate art into the community,” said Jeffrey York, the town’s public art administrator, in a speech.

Layne said the sculpture was made to solve the problem of overland flow caused by point sources, which are concentrated places where things like pipes release water.

These point sources don’t allow for the proper dispersal of water, causing it to flow out furiously and ruin the surrounding land, Layne said. One such problem came about from a pipe releasing rainwater from the roof of Town Hall, he added.

“The man-made visual element is a wave of vertical or semi vertical bamboo posts,” Layne said.

Layne’s goal was to construct an aesthetically pleasing, site-specific work of art that both solved man-made issues and recycled man-made materials, he said.

“It has this feeling of nurturing. It has this feeling of calming. It has this feeling of an undulating stream,” he said.

York said “H2O Flow” is a work of “aesthetic engineering,” and that Layne has raised the bar even higher in terms of melding beauty and functionality.

“Rarely do you think about art (and) storm water mitigation in the same sentence,” York said during his speech.

Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, who also spoke at the dedication, pointed out that “H2O Flow” is related to a responsibility of town government, storm water mitigation.

Kleinschmidt urged people to share the “secretness” of “H2O Flow,” referencing its tranquil location as a place to build upon.

Layne said he has plans to expand upon the work in new ways. He is currently working with a choreographer on a performance piece to take place at the “H2O Flow” site, he said.

“The work is more than just a functional thing,” Layne said in his speech. “It has some pleasure to it.”