Carin Mincemoyer

Shy Canopy

Commissioned by the Allegheny County Airport Authority.

Shy Canopy is an 80 foot long sculptural installation that is inspired by the act of looking up into a tree canopy in the sunlight. Suspended under a skylight at Pittsburgh International Airport, each of the 13 modules consists of a wooden spaceframe structure with multiple suspended elements that reference leaf clusters. The forms of the spaceframes take historic regional bridge trusses as a starting point, while the leaf cluster shapes suspended from them reference the leaves of White Oak and Sugar Maple, two of our area’s most common trees. Both the spaceframes and the leaf clusters hang from swivels which allow them to turn, making the air currents visible. The sculpture changes subtly over time and adds soft movement and a bit of color to the space.

The title and overall form of the sculpture was inspired by Crown Shyness or Canopy Shyness – a phenomenon seen in some forests where trees maintain a gap between their leafy crowns and those of their neighbors. Scientists are not completely sure why this happens, but some think that it may be a sort of social distancing for trees, the gaps slowing the spread of disease and leaf-eating insects.

Regarding the Delaware

Commissioned by City of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation and the Office of Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy.

This commissioned artwork is installed on the fencing surrounding a new community swimming pool in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia. Fishtown is a former fishing village on the Delaware River, and many residents continue to celebrate the neighborhood’s ties to the water.

This installation is inspired by water’s ability to camouflage and make the everyday mysterious, as well as the enduring aesthetic appeal of the river’s ever-changing surface. Shapes in the water’s surface as depicted in paintings and photos of the Delaware River are mounted on the fence surrounding the pool, activating nearly the entire 250′ length of the fence. The arranged shapes resemble camouflage, referencing the camouflaging character of the water’s surface. The artwork makes a conceptual link between the pool and the nearby river while also referencing the area’s history as a river town. The organic shapes break up the geometry of the fence, add pops of color, and provide some visual screening from the street.

Trail Meander

Commissioned by Pennsylvania Department of Transportation with funding from the Federal Highway Administration. Created in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation; Office for Public Art; the City of Pittsburgh; HDR; and Swank Construction Co. LLC. Trail Meander responds to both the bridge and the site of the Fern Hollow ravine. Time and water are major themes. The artwork includes a trail restored in a meander shape, as well as seating and sculptural elements on the trail and on the slopes of the ravine. The bridge is a statement of efficiency - the shortest line between two points. It’s the path that gets us to our destination most quickly, skipping over the steep terrain of the ravine. The trail is the slow path, the one we choose when we are interested in the journey, when the trees, the rocks, the birds, are what we are after. This work takes the slow path and slows it down even more, inviting us to stop and rest. The path of the Tranquil Trail widens out, curves back and forth, offers islands and places to perch. The form of the artwork - the riverlike meander of the trail and the seating and sculptural elements resembling river boulders and driftwood reference the history of the site and its formation over geologic time largely by the movement of water.