New ‘flight patterns’

Whether you are mad or glad that the “flying people” are gone from the Eugene Airport, you can see them now simply by visiting Lane Community College between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

“Flight Patterns,” the iconic work by the late David Joyce that was all over the local news last week after the city-owned airport removed it, will be on display at LCC’s David Joyce Gallery through Jan. 8.

The airport spent months looking at options for storing the popular artwork that was installed in its main concourse in 1989, then refurbished in 2012, and ultimately reached a deal with the gallery.

At least three of the artwork’s seven panels had to be moved because of construction starting on the concourse this week, part of a two-year, $16.8 million expansion project.

The airport opted to move all of them to LCC. The city has not made a final decision on where to keep them, but emails show that airport staff favor leaving them permanently at LCC.

The black-and-white images, shot by Joyce in 1988, of local folks posed in various flying poses, will be part of the LCC gallery’s fall exhibit “Taking Flight: A Visual Voyage.”

Susan Detroy, director of the David Joyce Gallery, was busy on Wednesday continuing to install the artwork on several walls of the gallery’s hallways. “We’re pretty much following the pattern they were in at the airport,” she said. “We’re super-excited to have them here.”

Photographs were taken of the artwork’s 176 pieces, while they still were on the airport walls, so Detroy and others installing them at LCC would know what order to put them in.

The airport agreed to pay LCC $5,207 to install the artwork at the Joyce gallery, according to city records obtained by The Register-Guard in a public records request.

It’s uncertain whether the city will move “Flight Patterns” back to the airport when the expansion project is completed at the end of next summer. The airport has said the remodel of the main concourse will not include a reconfiguration that can accommodate the artwork in one spot.

News of the move caught many by surprise last week, including Mayor Kitty Piercy, who sent her thoughts to Airport Director Tim Doll in an email labeled “Keep those flying people please.”

After reading The Register-Guard’s story on Thursday, the day the artwork was moved to LCC, Piercy posted the story on her Facebook page with this comment: “I hope enough people will speak up to keep flying people flying at our airport. We are in danger of out of sight, out of mind.”

That resulted in a slew of responses both for and against returning “Flight Patterns” to the airport next year.

Airport spokeswoman Cathryn Stephens said earlier this week that she’s not sure when a decision will be made on whether to return “Flight Patterns” to the airport.

“We’ll need to be able to get in to see the space. It’s just hard to visualize how everything will be.”

In the meantime, the exhibit is in the gallery at the Center for Meeting and Learning in Building 19 on the campus, at 4000 E. 30th Ave., and also includes work from Demetra Kalams, Anne Tiegan, JS Bird and Kat Gottfried.

A reception will be held for the exhibit from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Nov. 4.