A dragon. A sea monster. Maybe a roller coaster or splash of energy coming out of the ocean. The pop-up public art piece – yellow, winding and about 100-feet long – was created in 12 hours at Goldthwait Beach Saturday by Marblehead native Jeremy Barnett and his artistic partner Jason Maracani.
“It can be anything,” Barnett explained. “It’s a bright collection of sticks put together on a sunny day to bring joy.”
“We hope it inspires people to explore their own vision,” Maracani added.
The two artists met outside Detroit about a decade ago and have partnered since on public art pieces in the U.S. and Europe. Some of their commissioned installations stay up for several months to a year. Other pieces, like this one, are more whimsical, and temporary. The men deconstructed the Goldthwait piece on Monday.
The piece was constructed of about 150 pieces of yellow painted wood, each 6-8 feet long, and screwed together. As Barnett and Maracani worked, dozens of people stopped by to chat.
“They asked, ‘What is this, what inspired you to create it?’” Maracani said. “Mostly they said, ‘Thank you for what you’re bringing to the community.’”
Barnett and Maracani have created two other pop-up installations in Marblehead – another one at Goldthwait in 2021 and one at Chandler Hovey in 2022.
Barnett, who grew up in Marblehead and graduated from the high school in 1996, hopes the works will motivate people to create more public art.
“I want so badly to say to people, ‘Ask for more of this.’ If you build abstract sculptures on the beach, people will come. Public art builds communities. It can be another thing to have pride in here in Marblehead.”
