It’s a work of art more than a year in the making, weaving together nearly ten thousand pieces of Chapel Hill’s history, community and life – and it’s on display now in the Chapel Hill Public Library.
Unveiling “Unbound.” (Photo by Aaron Keck.)
It’s called “Unbound.” Commissioned by the town’s cultural arts division and compiled by Rhode Island-based artist Erik Carlson, it’s a digital projection through more than a hundred lenses, cycling through 9,469 still images and videos collected over the spring and summer of 2015 – including kids’ drawings, menus, maps, love letters, TV broadcasts, Super 8 films, YouTube videos and more, all drawn from life in Chapel Hill. (The piece also includes nods to various forms of communication: shorthand, Morse Code, binary, cursive writing, and Braille.)
Erik Carlson.
The town selected Carlson from a pool of 235 applicants for the project. Carlson shuttled back and forth from Rhode Island to Chapel Hill throughout 2015 and 2016 to gather material and produce the piece – touring restaurants and bars, visiting community centers, attending cultural events, and more. (His final trip was down I-95 through six states, all with the finished artwork sitting precariously in his vehicle – but he says he made it without incident.)
The work was officially unveiled Friday evening, with Mayor Pam Hemminger, Cultural Arts Division head Jeff York, Public Library director Susan Brown, and most of the Chapel Hill Town Council in attendance along with Carlson himself.
Susan Brown, Pam Hemminger, and Erik Carlson discuss “Unbound.” (Photos by Aaron Keck.)
A couple days before the official unveiling, Carlson and Brown discussed “Unbound” with Aaron Keck on WCHL.
Learn more about “Unbound” here.
“Oh, let’s just rip it!” (Photo by Aaron Keck.)
And learn even more about it here.
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