Stratiformis (sculpture)
Stratiformis is a public artwork by Korean-born artist Jin Soo Kim located in Catalano Square, which is south of downtown in the Historic Third Ward of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.The large sculpture combines disassembled knitting machines culled from a local apparel manufacturer in a grid of rusted rebar, all hand-wrapped with galvanized and copper wire.Milwaukee County’s cancellation of Blue Shirt, which had been scheduled for installation at Mitchell International Airport in 2003, was a source of civic embarrassment for local public art advocates.By early 2003, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel art writer Jim Auer summarized the “lessons learned” from Blue Shirt and published his blueprint for future public art processes: 1) notify the media early, 2) create venues for citizen input on finalists, and 3) invite publics to meet with artists before plans are finalized.[7] Critics had previously praised Kim's “oddly affecting assemblages,"[8] “painstaking approach, which emulates the activity of bandaging or sewing,"[9] and her installations “dense as a tropical forest.