A sculpture the size of an airliner landed at Chicago’s main air travel hub, O’Hare International Airport, Courtesy of Contemporary Artists Hank WillisThomas and Coby Kennedy.
Fresh off of high-profile sculptural turns at the Super Bowl and Boston, where his monument to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, The embrace (2023), was the subject of much debate after its unveiling in January, Thomas collaborated with Kennedy on the colossal sculpture, REACH (2023), which is now installed above the escalators of the airport’s multimodal facility.
Hank Willis Thomas and Coby Kennedy, REACH2023 Courtesy of the Chicago Department of Aviation and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
Fittingly for a site where millions of people greet and bid farewell every year, the sculpture consists of two massive outstretched hands spanning 27 feet and 31 feet that almost but not quite touch, suspended in a ambiguous moment that could signal a separation or coming together. The sculptural commission and installation was organized by the Chicago Department of Aviation and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
“As long-time collaborators, we had an incredible opportunity to create a work of art together and reframe a public space, where most are in transit and passing through, for interconnectivity and unity,” Thomas and Kennedy said in a joint statement. “REACH is a connection point and a large-scale gesture that inspires us to come together.
Hank Willis Thomas and Coby Kennedy, REACH2023 Courtesy of the Chicago Department of Aviation and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
The duo’s massive sculptural hands are the latest additions to an ambitious public art program at O’Hare, which is in the midst of a $3.5 million effort to bring more contemporary art to the airport.
