THE FLIGHT OF THE LOST BOOK ANIMAL
By Ed Haddaway
PROPOSAL:
The Flight of The Lost Book Animal is the title for the proposed sculpture to be located on Sunport Boulevard near the Sunport Airport in Albuquerque, NM. The maquette is built at a scale of one inch to one foot. It shows the maximum size of the sculpture possible using the funds available. This sculpture will measure approximately 9 feet by 30 feet by 12 feet and will be mounted on a 10 to 20 foot pipe.
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My name is Ed Haddaway. I first came to New Mexico in 1969 and graduated from University of New Mexico in 1972. Choosing to live here almost steadily since then, I have long become accustomed to the importance of our multi-cultural history. The confluence of Native, Hispanic, and Anglo traditions and language is most evident. This is “big sky” country, and the sky plays a significant and an integral part of this heritage…much more so, than in most of the U.S. It became especially clear to me that the sky and four directions are so important to Native American culture when I consulted elders while working on Monument, my last public sculpture in Albuquerque.
This proposed sculpture embodies both the literal and the figurative theme of flight. The sculpted creature strives toward the vastness of the sky and its far reach to the limitless heavens head on. Human flight was only a dream for most of mankind’s time on earth. Yet, it has always been as tangible as the birds which have drifted into the Land of Enchantment for the winter. And all the different cultures have deified flight in one way or another, paying homage to it in a variety of ways. My focus, like much of my work is on the imaginative and dream-like qualities that can be found in flight.
Often it is my inspiration and my goal to connect with the community to discover images from their childhood memories and dreams to find a bond between all that would be interesting and exciting. Finding unity within cultural diversity is a concept that excites me. This leads me to the title, The Flight of The Lost Book Animal, which references the common imagination of all cultures by describing an animal that is taking flight as in a “Lost Book.” The irony is apparent in that a book that is lost can never describe or reference anything tangible, nor tell us what animal this is. This allows the visionary creature to live solely in the realm of imagination, the “wings” and its position in the sky are all that tell us it is aloft. This sense of vision, universality, and hope found in a creature from a lost book taking flight offers inspiration to all. When I first focused on this project, my thoughts seized immediately upon a connection from the site of the artwork to the root of that which I am dealing with. For both pedestrians and motorists alike, this sculpture with add to the clear line that can be drawn from “Sunport Boulevard” to the WPA-built “airport” and then on to “flight.”
I believe family and the community is at the root of our shared culture. In my family of origin, there is a rich vein involving airplanes and flying: my mother was a pilot, flying stateside during the war; one uncle was a bomber pilot in WW2; and another uncle, George Haddaway, had been interested in flying beginning in the late 1920s. He was also a pilot who had met almost all of the early aviators and pilots of his day and founded a magazine in Texas called, Flight Magazine. He also helped establish the “Wings of Hope,” a charitable aviation organization.
In fact, my mother was George Haddaway’s secretary, and my uncle insisted that she meet my father when he returned from the war. Their meeting ultimately resulted in my coming into existence, as well as the existence of my two siblings.
A very early memory I have is of a family gathering in which the topic of airplanes and flying continued through the meal. Being around five or six years old, I suddenly jumped up, deciding I was going to build an airplane, ran outside to the garage where there were some large pieces of wood, then soon returned to the table, quite upset, when I realized I could not lift the wood by myself, and all my plans of making a flying machine were thwarted. The opportunity to build a flying creature in a place that I love is the fulfillment of that early childhood desire.
If a road is named Sunport Boulevard in Albuquerque, it cannot help but lead everyone to and from Albuquerque’s airport, a pivotal destination. Thus, all those driving by this sculpture will be confronted by a very large, somewhat abstracted (childlike), imaginary animal taking fight from a grassy mound. Appealing to both children, and to the child in all of us (no matter what our age) this visage will set the stage for the anticipated journey of many, the arrival of others, and will confirm that the centuries-old dream of flight is indeed a reality.