SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — There is a new attraction at The Steel District in downtown Sioux Falls. A Sioux Falls artist recently completed a new project inside the lobby of the Steel District Office Tower.
This art project looks impressive during the day, but at night, it comes to life.
“Ultimately, it was exactly as I imagined it, and that’s rare,” Sioux Falls artist Wes Eisenhauer said.
Eisenhauer is the artist behind it. He calls the project “Currents.” It took him about six months to complete it.
“The Washington Pavilion, Lloyd Company and The Steel District came to me saying they had a huge space in the lobby that they needed filled with some art, and this was kind of the first thing that popped into my mind when I walked into the space,” Eisenhauer said.
The installation spans two floors and contains 18 vertical panels. Each panel includes abstract pictures of the Big Sioux River and Falls Park. At sunset, projectors cast an image of flowing water to give it the effect of movement.
“I think it was important to Lloyd that the piece tell a story, so what I think the biggest piece of this story is where we’re at physically, geography and location in kind of an ode to the river that that this place was built on,” Eisenhauer said.
“Wes was able to use different kinds of technology in his own way to combine his different forms of artwork in a way that we’ve not seen in this town before, so this is the first of its kind. I think this is only just the beginning,” Washington Pavilion Visual Arts Center curator Erin Castle said.
And Castle is pleased with how it turned out.
“It was pretty special to be able to help coordinate something that landed him an opportunity, which he blew out of the park,” Castle said.
“It felt really good to take it from idea and conception to execution and then to see it complete. It’s a dream come true for me as an artist,” Eisenhauer said.
There will be an opening ceremony for the project at the Steel District on January 14th from 5-7 p.m.
