Workers installing part of the "Rotations" sculpture on Friday outside the entrance to the UM Hospital. From left: Troco employees Brad Boulch, Tim Trotter, Tony Pacheco, sculptor Doug Hollis, and Troco employee Glen Steiner.

The sculpture by Doug Hollis outside the University of Michigan Hospital is a moving work of art. Literally.

Hollis – an Ann Arbor native and University of Michigan alumnus – described the piece as a “kinetic screen.” Located outside of the hospital’s main entrance, the sculpture is made entirely of stainless steel and contains rotating components that spin in the wind. Hollis explained that wind, water and motion are the main elements of his artistic vocabulary.

The university commissioned the sculpture, called “Rotations,” to honor the memory of the University of Michigan Medical Center transplant team who died when their plane crashed into Lake Michigan in June 2007.

Elaine Sims, director of UM’s Gifts of Art Program, explained in an email that Hollis was selected to create the sculpture by a task force of people from a variety of areas in the university, including the Transplant Department and Survival Flight. They sent out inquiries to organizations that had commissioned similar memorials, seeking guidance and names of sculptors. The task force requested qualifications from six artists and asked for proposals from two finalists out of that group before ultimately selecting Hollis, who now lives in San Francisco. Sims noted that they showed the final proposals to and asked for input from the families of the transplant team members who died in the crash. The entire process of selecting an artist took about one year.

The project cost $100,000, UM Health System Senior Public Relations Representative Margarita Bauza said. The university paid for it using health system funds and donations from the nonprofit community organization Friends (a partner of the health system).

The St. Louis-based construction company Troco started fabricating the sculpture about six weeks ago. They then transported its components to Ann Arbor and began installing it on May 14. A dedication ceremony is planned for June 3.

On Friday afternoon, The Chronicle dropped by as Hollis and several Troco workers were busy fitting the piece together. Hollis stood by a low concrete wall where wavy, perforated sheets of metal – the rotating parts of the sculpture – sat stacked in cardboard boxes.

Doug Hollis cleans what will become the rotating elements of the sculpture. The framework is being installed in the background.

“I thought it was quite a nice site,” Hollis said of his first impression of the location. The sculpture faces the hospital lobby’s windows on one side, the street leading up to the entrance on the other. “But I immediately thought I’d want to do something to screen the road.”

As of Friday afternoon, the sculpture consisted of the curving concrete wall, surrounded by dirt. Flat metal circles dotted the top of the wall. Hollis explained that they’d drilled 2-inch holes in the wall and put in anchor plates to hold up the screen element of his work. Everything would be welded together, he said.

One portion of the screen was already up close to the building. Hollis pointed out the sole rotator already in place in the large steel grid. In the next few days, they would install 599 more to fill the entire screen.

Hollis observed that the sculpture is also close to the helicopter pads, and the air currents created when the aircraft land or take off will set his art in motion. He said this seemed appropriate, given the sculpture’s link to the transplant team and the plane crash that claimed their lives.

As he spoke, the sound of a helicopter’s blades beating the air swelled around the installation site.

“You can feel the breeze,” Hollis remarked, smiling.

Sue Hadden, a University of Michigan registered nurse, stopped to investigate the burgeoning artwork.

“So far, I think it’s kind of cool,” Hadden said. “Visually, it’d be good. It can be very challenging to be an inpatient in the hospital and to have a diversion would be a good thing.”

When she learned why the sculpture was commissioned, she called it a “creative way to memorialize.”

Troco employee Glen Steiner said this is the third piece by Hollis that he’s helped construct during his time with the company. Steiner described Hollis’ work for the hospital as “pretty cool.”

A closeup of one of the rotating elements.

“I’ll be excited to see a nice breeze come and make them all go around,” Steiner said of the spinning parts of the sculpture.

Steiner’s coworker Tony Pacheco, a metal polisher and grinder, said he liked how Hollis was devoting so much attention to his artwork’s installation.

“I think it’s great,” Pacheco said. “I can’t wait until it’s fully done so I can see it.”

Tim Trotter, head of Troco, who was on the site helping with the installation, called the sculpture “awesome.”

“Doug is just an outstanding artist,” Trotter said. “He understands the whole process really well, the fabricating.”

Trotter explained that the parts of the sculpture were cut and formed in his company’s shop in St. Louis according to Hollis’ design.

“We’re really honored to be a part of this,” Trotter said. “Not only to be working with Doug, but on the whole memorial piece and with the university.”

The completed sculpture by Doug Hollis – landscaping is still to come.

About the author: Helen Nevius, a student at Eastern Michigan University, is an intern with The Ann Arbor Chronicle.

Detail of a Motawi mural installed on the 5th floor of the UM Hospital. This design is called the Button Basket.

Bill and Matt Ransom clearly are experts and take their work seriously, but there was plenty of good-natured ribbing between the father and son when The Chronicle peeked into their cloistered workspace on the 8th floor elevator lobby of the University of Michigan Hospital. When Matt poked his father with a tape measure while Bill was slathering tile mud on the wall – Bill just kept on working.

The Ransoms were installing an 8×10-foot mural designed by Motawi Tileworks, one of 14 “Tile Quilts” – each one unique – that the hospital has commissioned from Motawi since 2005. It’s a project that started out small but has now become a signature part of the building, and a kind of artful wayfinding system for patients and visitors.

The Chronicle heard about the recent installations at an Ann Arbor Public Art Commission meeting, when commissioner Elaine Sims reported to the group that another set of murals was going up in January. Sims is director of the Gifts of Art program at the University of Michigan Health System, which is responsible for the project.

Matt and Bill Ransom work together to install the glass tile border around the Motawi mural, which was already in place but not yet grouted.

Colleen Crawley, project designer for Motawi, said that Sims had originally contacted the Scio Township firm about doing murals just in the two first-floor elevator lobbies. Motawi’s original proposal was for custom-made murals, which turned out to be too high for the Gifts of Art budget. “But we didn’t give up,” Crawley said.

Instead of walking away when their proposal was turned down, Motawi designers looked at making a collage out of their standard tile designs to reduce costs. They also shrank the mural and added a foot-wide border of small, less expensive glass tiles around the outside edge. Crawley said they surprised Sims by returning with a new, lower-priced bid – one that got an enthusiastic approval.

Over the years, Gifts of Art has expanded the project. In 2006, Motawi murals went up in the second-floor elevator lobbies. Murals in the fourth and fifth floors were added in 2008, and this year they’re being installed on floors six through eight. There are proposals in the works for additional pairs in the basement level and ninth floor, but those haven’t been approved yet, Crawley said.

Both Crawley and Carrie McClintock, the Gifts of Art communications coordinator, mentioned the practical qualities of these ceramic-tile murals. The tile is extremely durable – almost indestructible, Crawley said, and can be easily cleaned by wiping off the surface. (This also makes them popular for places like the Ann Arbor District Library’s Pittsfield branch, the Ann Arbor YMCA and Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, where Motawi murals are also installed.)

McClintock, who was also The Chronicle’s guide through the hospital (no free-range journalists are allowed on the premises), noted how tactile the murals are, and how patients like to touch them. That’s an advantage over other types of art, which are typically framed and behind glass or in a display case. A letter sent to Motawi from Lisa Danielson, an educational nurse coordinator at the hospital, makes this point explicitly (Danielson gave permission to quote the letter, excerpted here):

I work on an Acute Adult Rehabilitation unit. Most of the patients rely on a wheelchair for their mobility to get from one floor to the other for treatments and therapy. Your works are strategically placed at an accessible level for them to see and touch. I have observed many patients and visitors, adults and children, viewing and feeling the art work you created. I cannot tell you how moved I am when I see this interaction happen. It is a wonderful thing in life when something comes together so beautifully and completely.

An 8x10-foot Motawi mural on the 2nd floor (east elevator lobby) of the UM Hospital. The mural also serves as a backdrop for a wooden bench in the elevator lobby.

The Ransoms, via their Ransom Ceramic Tile business, are Motawi’s go-to installers in the Ann Arbor area – they’ve done all of the hospital murals. By Friday morning, they had placed all the ceramic tiles but hadn’t yet grouted. When The Chronicle arrived, they were putting up the small blocks of glass tiles in the border, which 28-year-old Matt described as a bit of a pain to install. They come in sheets about a foot square, held together by paper adhered to the part of the tile that faces out. The timing is tricky: You apply the mortar (called mud) to the wall, then press the square of tiles into place. You have to wait until it sets a bit – if you peel off the paper backing too soon, the glass tiles will slide off. If you peel it off too late, the mud will have hardened and you won’t be able to shift the tiles into place, if they aren’t aligned.

This work is done out of the public eye: A plastic tarp creates a small workspace around the mural, and a device outside the zippered entry filters air to minimize impact on the patient floors. It’s not for the claustrophobic.

So what does it cost to build a mural like this? Crawley said in general, Motawi murals cost roughly $400 a square foot. Matt Ransom had a tip for potential customers who like the tiles but need a lower-priced option: Motawi’s semi-annual sales are one popular way to find bargains, but Ransom also pointed out that the firm’s seconds room (also known as the Bone Yard) is open year-round.