Courtesy of Margaret Keller
Riverbend Margaret Keller
"Riverbend" by Margaret Keller.
Starting this Saturday, the newly renovated Gateway Arch National Park will have another river gracing its grounds. Artist Margaret Keller’s 100-foot-long public art installation, Riverbend, is the 2018 Public Works Project by Critical Mass for the Visual Arts, a nonprofit visual arts collaborative devoted to local contemporary art since 1995.
The piece is situated on the pavement of Luther Ely Smith Square, and traces the route of the navigable portion of the Missouri River, based on highly detailed charts from the Army Corps of Engineers. Keller, whose work examines the relationships between our culture, nature, and technology, says her idea was clear to her from the moment she considered it.
“It was a complete vision of how my artwork would look,” says Keller. “I could see this shiny silver river. I had seen it completed—what remained was the question of how to pull it off.”
Keller had her work cut out for her. The material had to meet a lot of criteria—it had to be shiny silver, fit her budget, be weatherproof, and removable.
“At first I thought of sequins and glitter and stained glass,” Keller says. “I thought of digging a trench.”
It took four months of spreadsheet-heavy research to find the material: a newly created substance made for pavement, concrete, or brick. After a bit of further finesse she found a vendor.
“I kept thinking, ‘This is America, there’s got to be something that works!’” Keller says. “It turned out to be perfect.”
She drew the river herself in pencil, rather than plotting digitally, and cut it out with regular scissors.
Keller has close family connections to the Missouri River on both her parents’ sides and found her research, both in charting her version of the river and for the accompanying podcast, fascinating. She learned about the river’s biodiversity and how crucial it is to human life—it supports agriculture and recreation and bears much of the country’s history.
“It was a good idea,” she says, “but it was extremely complicated and challenging. I had no idea how much work it was going to be. I felt like an engineer.”
The Riverbend opening will take place Saturday, September 22, from 2–5 p.m. Enjoy refreshments, a hands-on activity, and the Sappington Creek Bluegrass Band. On view through December 21. Free.
