BANGOR, Maine — Using ropes, two-by-fours and a pair of concrete anchors, Maine artist Anna Hepler and a small group of volunteers hoisted and dropped her floating sculpture off a footbridge into the Kenduskeag Stream on Thursday evening.
The launch was only partially successful.
Hepler’s creation, which consists of a large cluster of colorful buoys she and friends collected along Maine’s coastline for months, flipped over in mid-air and settled upside down in the water about 10 feet below the bridge.
With the tide nearly high and no way to get to the capsized work, titled “Boat Load,” the artist and her half-dozen helpers decided the installation would have to be continued Friday.
Hepler, who is known for innovative works such as the inflatable sculpture “Bloom,” declined to comment on her work or the launch afterward. After conferring with the volunteers, including Bangor City Councilor Josh Plourde and Kiersten Piccininni, chairwoman of the city’s Commission on Cultural Development, she planned to return to the site behind the University of Maine Museum of Art at low tide around 2 p.m. Friday to finish the job.
During a meeting of the Bangor Commission on Cultural Development earlier Thursday, Piccininni had said she expected the sculpture to be installed in the stream Friday, though city officials were not involved in the installation.
Hepler said in January it was very likely that the final piece might not look like a pair of renderings submitted with her grant application. Those renderings raised controversy among online commenters and on social media over their perceived similarity to female genitalia.
On the recommendation of the commission, the Bangor City Council approved a $1,000 grant for the sculpture in January to match an additional $5,000 to $6,000 to be raised by Hepler.
Hepler’s solo exhibit “Blind Spot” is slated to open June 19 at the University of Maine Museum of Art. The exhibit will feature more than 25 sculptures and two-dimensional artworks, according to museum director and curator George Kinghorn.
The works were inspired by collages made from National Geographic magazine, according to the museum, which is open to the public free of charge.
Hepler said previously she hopes to move the floating sculpture to other sites in Maine once her exhibit closes Sept. 19.
Internationally known, her work has appeared in several galleries, including the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress and the Tate Gallery in London.