Downtown Greenway of Greensboro Unveils Public Art to Mark Last Mile Groundbreaking

American sculptor and painter Thomas Sayre has again pulled history out of the earth to offer the world something memorable and thought-provoking. Created as a public art piece for Downtown Greenway of Greensboro, Cairn’s Course commemorates groundbreaking on the greenway’s last mile and captures the rich history of the city.

Sayre brought Cairn’s Course to life using earthcasting, a technique he developed in which holes are dug in the ground and filled with a mix of reinforced concrete and rebar. Large steel rods support the molds to comprise three cairns ranging from 22 – 33 feet tall. Sayre uses these stacks of stone to showcase the rich history in this site’s soil, from remnants of the city’s first cotton warehouse to white ceramics manufactured on the land in the 70s.

“This greenway and piece serve as an elucidation of place,” said Sayre. “It is my hope that this piece will allow us to grow deeper as humans in understanding our relationship with our history, our water, our ecology, and Greensboro—and the importance of stewarding these things.”

Another aspect of the piece is its relationship to the nearby College Branch stream. Sayre incorporated several terrazzo stepping stones among the cairns with stainless steel “critters” embedded. The 16 critters were found in the nearby stream and serve as indicators of water health for the community.

This beautiful and impactful piece was made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts and through local funding from The Cemala Foundation and The City of Greensboro Water Resources Department. The land for the installation was donated by Greensboro College.

Thomas Sayre sculpts, paints and produces commissioned work for public art projects and private collections across the globe. His earthcasting process seeks to capture the intersection between the forces of human creativity and those of nature, as is highlighted in his Emmy-nominated documentary EARTHCASTER. His current work includes a series of paintings made with tar, smoke, gunshots, welding material, earth and fire.

For more information about Cairn’s Course, please visit https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rg4bn2kdhju6lq5/AACZyd0jGwcE-6u8g7ZyyL1Za?dl=0.