This proposal envisions a major new landmark for Charleston: a dynamic, large-scale kinetic sculpture that transforms before the viewer’s eyes and becomes a bold and dynamic destination in its own right. Standing 59 feet long and 15 feet high, the work takes the form of a steel-coloured, full-scale “model” locomotive an image deeply embedded in the American imagination yet radically reinterprets it through movement, time, and participation.
All objects carry a poetics: they shape the world and take part in it. The locomotive derived from the Latin loco, “from one place to another” has long symbolised progress, modernity, and unstoppable force. It overcame distance, connected landscapes, opened territories, and came to embody both industrial innovation and the restless drive toward the future. For the Futurists, it expressed the dynamism inherent in life itself. It evokes nostalgia and adventure, yet also speaks of expansion, journey and the intersection of humanity with nature.
This work honours that legacy while transforming it. Constructed from five monumental revolving sections, the locomotive continuously shifts. At any given time, no more than two segments move clockwise or anticlockwise, rotating through 360 degrees like the tumblers of a safe or the turns of a Rubik’s Cube. When misaligned, the form dissolves into a constellation of abstract, turning planes in space. Through algorithmic sequences, the five components align to reveal the complete locomotive once each day, briefly and unpredictably. To witness the full form, one must be present at the right moment.
The sculpture emerges conceptually from flat “pages,” echoing card models and the transformative power of books like locomotives, they transport us. The piece itself becomes a station: a place of anticipation, gathering, and return.
As a permanent, stand-alone landmark, the South Main Tumbler will be engaging for all ages, surprising, playful, and profound. It is not static but alive with motion and meaning: a celebration of ingenuity, history, and forward momentum. This is not only a statement that Charleston embraces imagination, innovation and ambition at the highest level… it’s also an unforgettable cultural beacon for Southeast Missouri.