“Lines,” the 11th annual Winston-Salem Light Project, explores the impact of urban development and gentrification on individuals and neighborhoods. The public art installation can be viewed from sunset to sunrise daily April 12-25 at the intersection of South Main Street and Waughtown Street, a triangular point of land near the Gateway YWCA.
Conceived, designed and built by graduating seniors from the School of Design and Production at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, “Lines” features a neighborhood of light centered around a single house typical of those found in the 1940s Belews Street neighborhood of Winston-Salem, a mixed-race, working-class community that was razed in the late ’50s to build U.S. 52.
The art installation includes scaled homes constructed three-dimensionally of light to represent the ghosts of communities that have been demolished for a variety of urban renewal projects. Designers were inspired by the work of Italian artist Massimo Uberti, who is renowned for his minimalist sculptural light installations.
Originally published March 21, 2019.