{"id":18317,"date":"2025-04-07T14:00:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsandscience.org\/?p=18317"},"modified":"2025-05-07T13:20:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T13:20:18","slug":"art-in-a-liminal-space-val-brittons-public-artwork-for-charlottes-busy-airport-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsandscience.org\/art-in-a-liminal-space-val-brittons-public-artwork-for-charlottes-busy-airport-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Art in a liminal space: Val Britton’s public artwork for Charlotte\u2019s busy airport"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t

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Art in a liminal space: Val Britton's public artwork for Charlotte\u2019s busy airport<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Photo by Mitchell Kearney Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>
By PAGE LEGGETT<\/strong><\/h5>
For someone who knew next-to-nothing about Charlotte, Val Britton<\/strong><\/a> became an expert in a hurry.<\/p>
The Portland, Oregon-based artist won the commission to create an original work for Charlotte Douglas International Airport\u2019s new Concourse A. She had a budget of $235,289 to create \u201cWhere Earth Meets Sky,\u201d which was recently unveiled in the concourse\u2019s west mezzanine. (ASC manages the public art programs<\/strong><\/a> for the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.)<\/p>
It\u2019s hard to imagine a better fit for the job.<\/p>
Britton, who earned a BFA in printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and an MFA from California College of the Arts (CCA), was tapped to create a permanent public artwork for the San Francisco International Airport in 2015. \u201cVoyage\u201d is on the Departures level between domestic Terminals 1 and 2 and was recognized as \u201cBest In Public Art Projects\u201d by \u201cAmericans for the Arts Public Art Network Year in Review.\u201d<\/p>
Britton\u2019s work is also in the permanent collections of some esteemed venues \u2013 the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Cleveland Clinic Fine Art Collection, Facebook headquarters (she once served the company as artist-in-residence), the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art and more.<\/p>
The Livingston, New Jersey native had never been to Charlotte until she was invited, along with other finalists, to present their qualifications. And the extent of her knowledge about the Queen City was Romare Bearden<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s connection to it. (Bearden is known for his collage work, as is Britton.)<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m very interested in a sense of place,\u201d she said. \u201cI was interested in this opportunity because of the liminal space of an airport, where there are all these interconnecting trajectories and all these people on their way somewhere.\u201d<\/p>
Maps are a frequent theme of hers. Her art \u201cuses the language of maps to create immersive, layered mixed media works that describe physical and psychological spaces,\u201d she wrote in her application.<\/p>
The fascinating \u2013 and deeply personal \u2013 reason for her love of maps is her late father\u2019s work as a cross-country truck driver and mechanic. After his death, Britton used road maps to try to piece together parts of his life she didn\u2019t know. \u00a0<\/p>
Using maps \u2013 or map iconography \u2013 is an effective visual cue in her art. The viewer inherently understands it\u2019s shorthand for wayfinding. And that could be literal or metaphorical.<\/p>
Britton\u2019s art deals with physical spaces \u2013 and sometimes psychological ones. \u201cCollage, drawing, painting, printing and cutting paper have become my methods for navigating the blurry terrain of memory and imagination,\u201d she writes.<\/p>
Art based on research <\/strong><\/p>
Her giant, high-impact art wall (more than 48 feet wide by 16 feet high) in the Charlotte airport was inspired by aerial views, mapping, topography and research into Charlotte\u2019s history. Symbols and shapes derived from mapping depict an imaginary, yet somehow familiar, world.<\/p>
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The judges were impressed with how methodical Britton is. \u201cHer practice is very research-heavy,\u201d said Todd Stewart, ASC\u2019s vice president for public art. \u201cShe works abstractly, so there are many different references, inspirations and bodies of knowledge incorporated in each piece. That\u2019s a big strength of hers.\u201d<\/p>
Britton, who calls herself an \u201cintuitive worker,\u201d said she approaches artmaking and research in much the same way. \u201cThere\u2019s an exploratory artmaking side that\u2019s about working with materials, colors and shapes; moving things around; and finding relationships within that. It\u2019s the same with research: I sift through what\u2019s there and see what resonates.\u201d<\/p>
Where better to research Charlotte than at UNC Charlotte\u2019s Atkins Library?<\/p>
Britton asked for \u2013 and was assigned \u2013 a student researcher to assist. Jonathan Apgar was then a senior art major at UNC Charlotte, and he helped uncover maps, aerial photographs, plans and soil surveys, which Britton said are surprisingly \u201cinteresting and beautiful; there are all these networks and layers of history.\u201d<\/p>
She\u2019s not just interested in roadmaps. She incorporates data and markings from all kinds of maps in her work \u2013 including goldmining maps and something even less likely: wastewater sanitation maps. \u201cThey can tell you a lot about populations and what\u2019s happening with health,\u201d she said. She found these maps especially interesting, as she was working on this commission during a global pandemic.<\/p>
Working with a student researcher is something that set Britton apart. \u201cIt\u2019s not a typical practice,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cIt\u2019s another measure of the extra distance Val went to ensure this piece is really tied to Charlotte.\u201d<\/p>
Even the materials she chose reference Charlotte. She created her own reddish pigment using Charlotte clay and red brick procured from the Little Sugar Creek Greenway and surrounding area. And gold leaf is an homage to the city\u2019s prospecting history.<\/p>
A sense of place<\/strong><\/p>
She managed to give the static work a sense of movement \u201cin which viewers can immerse themselves and travel through their imaginations into a complex visualization of history and landscape,\u201d she said.<\/p>
The work\u2019s themes \u2013 interconnectedness, wonder, a sense of place \u2013 come to life through Britton\u2019s palette of strong blues and gilded accents. She found a fabricator \u2013 Magnolia Editions<\/strong><\/a> in Oakland, California \u2013 to help bring the vision to life. Magnolia prepped 60, half-inch thick plywood panels with gold gesso.<\/p>
\u201cI had never worked with them before, and they were fantastic,\u201d Britton said. \u201cThey do traditional printmaking, papermaking, digital printing, Jacquard weaving. The tactility, color and beauty of the panels they created for the Charlotte airport really exceeded my expectations.\u201d<\/p>
After she created the artwork as a large-scale collage, she photographed it in \u201csuper-high resolution,\u201d she said. Then, Magnolia digitally printed on the primed wood.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s actually a UV-cured digital printing, and the color and detail are incredible,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so high-res, you can actually see<\/em> shadows of the collage material, which makes it feel like a real collage rather than something printed. Collage is a medium I love working with, because you can integrate and marry a lot of different materials and create a unified piece that\u2019s layered, rich and deep.\u201d<\/p>
Her meticulous placemaking leads to something special for viewers \u2013 \u201cthe people who work there and those just passing through,\u201d she said. She aims for something \u201cthat surprises them or gets them to think about where they are in a new way.\u201d<\/p>
Stewart, who was on-site during the five-day installation, is happy with the outcome \u2013 and with the process that led to it.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s always a privilege to work with artists who learn as much as they can about our city and the specific place they\u2019re designing for,\u201d he said. But Britton took it to the next level. \u201cShe learned so much about the land the airport sits on. She visited several times and took an enormous amount of inspiration for the piece she created.\u201d<\/p>
\u201cWhere Earth Meets Sky\u201d left an outsized impression on Stewart. \u201cWe do many, many projects, and I\u2019ve seen many different types of work,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what Val and her fabricator accomplished is extraordinary. It really<\/em> looks like a handmade collage made on a grand scale. I think anyone who comes into that concourse will be hard-pressed not<\/em> to take notice.\u201d<\/p>
Follow Val Britton at <\/em>Instagram.com\/ValBritton\/<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>
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