Jeffrey Schiff

  

Destinations
 
   

1 of 8, South Station facade

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South Station Railroad Terminal, Boston, MA
Commissioned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Federal Railroad.
Year: 1990-95
Materials: steel, steel cable, and cast bronze
Dimensions: 17' x 91' x 91'

The permanent sculpture for South Station in Boston is a symbolic introduction to the act of travel. In the grand entry hall, suspended from the coffered ceiling above the travelers, the sculpture metaphorically maps out the travelers' journeys through the station to their diverse personal destinations beyond.

Concentrated in the central coffer above the entrance, 25 assorted steel spools hang from brackets mounted on the ceiling. A steel cable is wound onto each spool. These cables wind off from the spools in uniform parallel lines until they pass through the "reed," a regularly perforated T-shaped steel plate. The reed, functioning much like the reed on a loom, maintains a parallel relationship between the cables. After passing through the reed, the cables strike out in diverse directions, crossing each other and fanning out towards destinations widely dispersed across the ceiling. Each cable eventually passes through an eyehook and drops vertically to a final destination. Each destination is a unique bronze casting of a lathed turning -- a cross between a plumb bob (a device which locates a precise geographic position) and a vessel (which enlarges and contains the position, making it a place). The weight of each destination pulls the cable taut from its originating spool.