Formstone Castle

Cicada Parade-a is a large-scale collaborative art project on display in and around Baltimore and the surrounding area starting in May and running through the end of summer of 2021. This project celebrates the re-emergence of Brood X, central Maryland’s 17-year cicada brood, which will return by the trillions to Maryland during Summer 2021. Emerging from the Dark The last time Brood X emerged was in 2004—what feels like a lifetime ago by now. The Cicada Parade-a represents an emergence from a long period of darkness to sing, make noise, and fall in love with the world again. This theme of transformative change will be explored in each piece, not just in the sculptures, but in a collection of stories about looking back and acknowledging the changes and transformations that occur in and around us over long cycles. as well as exploring deep cycles on different scales—cycles that repeat over and over in the rhythms of life, from the orbit of an electron around an atom, the cycle of blood around the body, the earth around the sun, the cycle of the tides in the Bay, election cycles, and even greater to cycles longer than a human lifetime. Funding and Goals Cicada Parade-a is funded by a MSAC Creativity Grant. The goals of the full collaborative project are closely aligned with that of the Maryland State Arts Council. We aim to increase the participation of communities in the arts as well as create opportunities to support multiple artists throughout Baltimore. This project was created in a way that can be enjoyed even while social distancing, should that remain necessary. We have placed sculptures to increase traffic to places of interest around town from the streets to the parks, inspiring people to explore and find other cicada sculptures, creating joyful encounters that can spark transformative conversations and promote social change.

Baltimore Fancy tells the story of the Arabbers, Baltimore’s traditional street vendors. It consists of two elements—a lit and decorated Arabber horse and cart, and a stable, where a magical canopy will provide a sense of place and history. Each night, the stable and cart first present an ethereal light show. Like a vacant store-front or an empty neighborhood, they are mere ghosts. Then, as Arabber and horse arrive and harness up to the cart, the light show comes colorfully alive, reminding us that it is only through use and human interaction that traditions are sustainable and our neighborhoods remain alive. We built this piece with the arabbers in the Fremont Street Stable during the fall of 2019. We got to know the farm hands, the animals, and the equipment. A full, down to the bare metal, restoration was conducted on an old cart that had rotted away. New oak and ash wood was used and then covered in Formstone Castle's signature LED and chrome look. 1000s of LED lit fruit in boxes were lovingly arranged by our arabbers each night. A skill passed down father to son for generations. Part sculpture, part performance, the piece started each night with the arrival of a real horse which we suited up in her traditional Baltimore Fancy harness and attached to the cart. Music would start as the horse and cart would head out into the crowded footprint of Light City to hand out light up fruit to the crowd.

The View-Scaper is an interactive and kinetic piece allowing us to view our human family photos from our amazing TRIP TO THE MOON. Each View-Scaper “eye” displays one of 7 specific scenes per disk, selectable by pulling the giant lever on the side. Looking through the eye pieces with one disk in place, the viewer sees iconic images of the Moon landing superimposed onto the real background of their Baltimore City surroundings. On other disks, the viewer will see fantastical images of what NASA didn’t want us to see: Alien Pyramids, Robots, and maybe even The Dreamlanders faking the whole thing?! Blacklight effects inside the ViewScaper and lighting on the outside transform the images for nighttime viewing. The View-Scaper is not merely something to look through and marvel at the scenery—it is a truly participatory, interactive installation. The wheels the participants turn to pan and tilt the View-Scaper are located far enough from each other that each action requires the collaboration of several members of the crowd (or for one person to move around to each wheel). Big toys require big muscles, and kids may need the help of an adult or several friends—working together to create magic is an important part of the participatory art experience.

Created as an entryway for Arlington Elementary’s INSPIRE garden park, this piece is an altar to the Sun which provides us with all we need to grow and learn. Throughout this project FSC worked with community leaders to make a gate that would show the community that they too deserved something beautiful to enjoy. A steel arch bends 15′ over head. In the center a child offers a flower as a thank you to The Sun. Resembling stained glass, the light from the sun casts colorful shadows on the ground through acrylic flowers. The mesh panels feature hundreds of 5 sided plasma cut flowers. Originally cut to hold the ends of reclaimed 2L soda bottles, we adapted the design after speaking with community leaders to create something even more magical. This was one of several major projects FSC took on in 2019. To pull off these projects we purchased a Sprinter van and brought on Thabo Letsebe to assist during the busy September-October crunch. In the end, I decided to title the piece Thank You For Helping Me Grow.

What lies beneath the waves has always been mysterious. In the darkness of night, the mysteries intensify. Everyone who has swum in a lake, ocean or river in the dark knows this feeling—it is a feeling so ingrained it most definitely has followed life from prehistoric times. Clearly, there are creatures just below the surface, but what kind? Are they friendly? Are they big? Small? Are they trying to tell us something? Will you find answers or more questions? Will illuminating these mysteries help you to understand these feelings… to understand WHAT LIES BENEATH? A 120ft x 40ft LED screen just below the surface of Baltimore's Inner Harbor was fabricated by Formstone Castle for Light City. With over 64,000 LEDS, this screen showed videos and animations shot by collaborating artists Justin Duvall, Kate Haberer, Andrew Dixon, with a score by Adam Rush

The DekoTora truck craze began in Japan during the 1970s, around the time Americans were having a similar craze decorating their vans. The Japanese created wildly decorated trucks outfitted with gratuitous chrome, lights, murals and decadent chandelier-lit interiors. Films pushed the craze into the mainstream and within a generation the trucks had evolved to the robotic, hypnotic light shows they are today. Their visual appeal has crossed the ocean, with dekotora trucks woven into the background of feature films by Ridley Scott and Gaspar Noe. The visual aesthetic of DekoTora and these films is the inspiration for Formstone Castle’s Light City 2017 entry, the Kinetic Kauchii DekoSofa—an evolution and transformation of our already proven 2016 Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race entry, the Kinetic Kouch. A second Japanese inspiration for the Kinetic Kauchii DekoSofa is the works of Studio Ghibli. The celestial mystical creatures embodying nature in Miyazaki’s underlying critiques of the relationship between humans and their environment are the source for our vision of the pilot of the DekoSofa. This mysterious swamp creature has emerged from the Chesapeake Bay into the Baltimore Harbor as a cryptid: a manifestation of a cautionary tale of bay and harbor sustainability. It has found our Kauchii and is delighted in its own exploration of LIGHT CITY, taking along those who wish to explore by couch. Who or what it truly is remains a mystery. Perhaps a captain lost in the bay, trying to find the way home? Over time, the line between human and nature has been lost with natural flora and fauna from the harbor entangled with trash… merged together embodying the inseparable relationship of humans and The Bay. Mural: Katlyn Wyllie. Costumes: Charlotte Hager. Music: Adam Rush