'SWIMMERS' dances on north bank of the river July 2, 2002

Chicago artist Herbert Migdoll has created a 275-foot-long mural of swimming Joffrey Ballet stars that was installed Monday on the Chicago River wall at Michigan Avenue. It's just above the waterline on the north bank. Migdoll's 8-foot-tall piece, "Swimmers,'' is outdoor-grade acrylic sprayed on vinyl mesh with silver oil enamel poured on top. The dancers are Guoping Wang, Maia Wilkins, Pierre Lockett and Sam Franke. The swimmers appear as if through a stream of time as well as a flow of water--green Lake Michigan water and turquoise Aegean--those shots taken while the company was on tour in Turkey. Migdoll said he hopes it gives a "strong linear sensation of liquid flowing through the piece rather than just the bodies.'' The project cost the city $20,000, said Mike Lash, public art director. It is the first work commissioned by the city from Migdoll, who had a show at the Cultural Center last year.

"It's nice to tip our hat to two of our great assets . . . the artist and the river,'' Lash said. Migdoll has been collected by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and showed at the Venice Biennale's 100th anniversary in 1995. He said Venice knocked him out as an aesthetic experience. "I became fascinated with the aspect of small canals where you can't back off to see full scapes . . . You see things sequentially,'' he said. "I want details,'' he said, and he found you can create an image by zooming in on details sequentially. In his process, an electronic eye scans the photos he made and directs a machine to paint on a mesh ground. After the digital gadgetry, the primitive: Migdoll finished up by pouring silver paint from a bucket.

The piece will be visible from the Michigan Avenue Bridge, but passing boaters will get the fish-eye view. In October, the work will be assessed to see how it weathered and to decide what happens to it next. Migdoll, design director for the Joffrey Ballet, has been in Chicago five years. He works out of the former Spice Factory, a studio at 500 W. Cermak called Artist's Workspace.

excerpts from SunTimes preview by Nancy Moffett staff reporter