Elemental Intervals was one of Freeland’s first large-scale creations; he prefered to call it a “three-dimensional work” or “construction” rather than a “sculpture.”
For the block-long garage and retail complex on South Street, artist William Freeland was commissioned to work with the architectural firm of Lawrence Polillo Associates. In this Redevelopment Authority one percent project, the artist contributed to the overall facade design. Freeland conceived the areas of darker brick that form shadow-like stripes on the red brick wall, and for the central portion he created a two-part wall sculpture in which cages of bronze mesh are filled with 4.5 tons of limestone rocks. The lowest piece of stone in the mesh was brought from the town of Loreto Aprutino in Italy by the developer, John Acciavatti; it comes from the house where his father was born. Elemental Intervals was one of Freeland’s first large-scale creations; he prefered to call it a “three-dimensional work” or “construction” rather than a “sculpture.”
In Philadelphia, Freeland taught for many years at Moore College of Art and Design, and was a graduate of the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts).
Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992).
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