Experiencing time and space in the vast, quiet landscapes of the rural Midwest significantly formed Bajuyo’s artistic inquiries about value and expectations. The juxtaposition of witnessing a field slowly grow as the artist drove back and forth to elementary school or to the grocery store was a personal, time-lapse film. When researching this region, the history of the railroad, silos, and grain in Fort Worth [and nearby Saginaw] reminded Bajuyo of these views.
Thinking about this passing of Time, Bajuyo states:
Seeing how the rows of a crop shifted from a landscape to vertical lines, depending on where I focused my eyes, and seeing a star-wheel rake on a tractor take that same field and turn it into a series of rhythmically spaced bales of hay dotting the landscape, still fascinates me.
This installation of 24 colorful metal doilies incorporates the words and arrows of the “ONE WAY” signs directing traffic around the Marine Creek roundabouts. These doilies are inspired by vortexes, star-wheel rake tractors, hay bales, and dandelions that have gone to seed. Lifted into the air at varying heights from two directions, this sequence of doilies creates an infinity sign. When driving around or entering the roundabout from either east or west, the doilies vanish for an instant and become lines and rows like rows of crops in a field: the infinity symbol emerges and fades with each turn, echoing the ephemeral nature of time.
Further, each doily is assigned an individual color, creating a visual of the progression of 24 hours of time elapsing within a day. Emphasizing the cyclical movement of the space, the gradation of color mimics the changing of color in nature – both in plants and sky – as the earth turns in its own roundabout. The blue and green hues also shift from light to dark, reminiscent of a day going from sunrise to sunset to nighttime and back to sunrise.
One Way was designed by artist Leticia Bajuyo, curated by Iris Bechtol in coordination with Alicia Eggert’s A Very Long Now. The monumental sculpture, which spans 35 feet in diameter and reaches nearly 20 feet in height, was created and installed by DFW area fabricator Stealth Industry. Its structural design was engineered by AJ Kuhn and its placement designed in coordination with civil engineer Jim DeOtte. Local contractor North Texas Land Management completed the foundation work.
Originally from a small, rural town on the border of Illinois and Kentucky, Leticia Bajuyo began creating art in Metropolis, Illinois long before realizing what she was tinkering with could be called art. She then sought education and mentorship at the University of Notre Dame where she received a BFA followed by an MFA from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Presently based in Norman, Oklahoma, Leticia is an Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma. Prior to this professorship, she lived and worked in Corpus Christi, Texas 2017-2022. In addition to this roundabout sculpture for Fort Worth, her recent projects include a site-specific installation at the School of Visual Art Chelsea Gallery in New York City, an artist residency at the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Virginia, and a solo exhibition at the Nona Jean Hulsey Art Gallery in Oklahoma City.
