Starwheel is a time piece located in the Humphrey Terminal at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. It reflects the beauty and diversity of the Minnesota landscape and the historical movement of people across these ecotones—beneath the movement of the stars. There are a number of constellations visible in the floor, including the North Star Polaris and the Little Dipper. All the other stars spin around Polaris which serves as a longstanding navigational marker of the night sky.
Tall grass prairies are represented by the flickering movement of early spring grasses near my home at Blue Mounds State Park in Minnesota. These are shown with thin 16-gauge divider strip on both ends of the design which appear and disappear into the dark sea of blue and yellows as you walk across the floor. The navigational waterways—both rivers and lakes of Minnesota—are evoked through the large abstract depiction of a canoe’s ribs, thwarts and inwales. Numerous silver-coated, mirrored and mother-of-pearl shell pieces in the floor are meant to evoke the reflection of stars on the surface of the water.
To convey a sense of navigation and discovery, I have included the image of an astrolabe which is set to the exact latitude for this section of the airport. The Roman numerals tell another story of time and time-keeping which is ever present in airport travel itineraries. Other directional and wayfinding markers are layered into the design with reference to the wonder of the petroglyphs inscribed into the Sioux Red Quartzite at Jeffers Petroglyph Park. A nearby quarry provided some of the quartzite aggregate used in this floor.
As airline passengers and visitors pass through this terminal, I want them to connect their own travels and adventures in Minnesota and beyond to this larger movement of history and discovery. The story of humanity is one of a great journey: in a sense, we are all travellers. We locate ourselves in the stories that evoke our comings and goings, affirmed by the imagery which guides us in our discoveries of what might lay ahead and in our returning home.
