(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – It was not one of your typical industry jobs, moving a 35-foot-wide, 30-foot-high, 60-foot-long, 25,000-pound sculpture made up of nearly dozens of aluminum canoes that was featured outside the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo to another location on its grounds as work began on a two-year, $160 million expansion project.

Artist Nancy Rubin’s’ sculpture, Monochrome I, was specifically created in 2011 as an outdoor exhibit on the Elmwood Avenue Campus of the Albright-Knox, a sight that has been recognized by Buffalonians and visitors as one the art gallery’s most notable and unique art pieces.

So, like the line in the movie Ghostbusters: Who you gonna call when it comes to moving such a large, heavy and iconic piece of artwork?

Answer: The Clark Rigging and Rental Corporation and their Union-represented Crane Operators from International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 17, their Riggers from Ironworkers Local 6, as well as Flatbed Drivers from the Teamsters Union, that’s who.

“We’ve ‘done work exclusively for’ the Albright-Knox for the past five or six years and this job was the ‘most unique’ (one Clark Rigging has ever had),” Clark Rigging Project Manager Shawn Foti tells WNYLaborToday.com a couple of months now after the September move.  “Because of its ‘size,’ it was an ‘unorthodox’ project.  The rigging made it ‘difficult.’”

Local 17 Business Agent Paul Hopkins told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper: “It was ‘kind of a rigging nightmare.’  We had to ‘make sure nothing got messed up.’  There were ‘quite a few chain falls used - it was ‘definitely a process’ with a move ‘so awkward as that.’  And the canoes that ‘stuck out all over made it (a) difficult (job).’  ‘It’s a work of art, so it had to be done right.’”

Now, Monochrome I’s new and permanent location faces Hoyt Lake and Delaware Park on the east side of the Art Gallery’s campus, blending in perfectly in this serene site for all to enjoy.

But back in September, the crew’s first challenge was that the sculpture was its dimensionally huge size. 

At the time, dismantlement was not an option - so it had to be moved as was and without disturbing the integrity of the piece.

The second challenge to Clark Rigging and its Union Crew was how they would safely lift a huge, yet fragile, art piece and then move it over uneven terrain to its new location?

The sculpture consists of 60 canoes and three john boats on a rigid frame. 

As such, there was no obvious center of gravity, which was needed to determine how to lift the sculpture both evenly and balanced. 

Working with Local 6 Ironworker Riggers, a trial and error process began to solidify the lift plan, Foti said. 

With this accomplished, the final operation involved fabricating an identical base plate to be attached to a heavy-duty trailer for transport.

On the day of the move, “everything had to be ready and coordinated so there would be no unforeseen problems,” Foti said. 

Clark Rigging brought in a 360-ton crane, which was operated by IUOE Member Rob Goodwin, which provided a comfortable safety margin.

The sculpture was then lifted and bolted down to the frame on the trailer. 

After being secured, it was moved ever so gingerly around the gallery building and close to the permanent site (below), Foti said. 

After relocating the crane, the sculpture was lifted off the trailer and landed on its new base with the Union Workers torqueing the bolts to finish the job. 

Both Foti and Hopkins agreed the job could not have come off without a hitch without the great amount of training and experience those Union Members who participated in the move - including Crane Operators Goodwin and Jim Waterman, and Jim Willis III, to name just a few - received and built up over the course of time.

“Very much so,” Hopkins said. “Honestly, ‘it’s something that you just don’t learn overnight.’  It ‘takes years’ (of training).  ‘The experience of past jobs.’  I will say that ‘not anybody could do this - lift and remove that kind of structure and move it down the street.’”

“We talked about (what would go into moving of the sculpture) ‘for a year.’  ‘It was quite a job.’  We had three Members of the IUOE, three from the Ironworkers and two Teamster Drivers.  It was ‘two-day’ move and ‘took about eight hours overall after we picked it up and put it onto a flatbed’ (truck),” Foti said.  “Without (the Union Workers’) ‘expertise, it would not have happened,’”

For More On This Labor News Story, Go To:

https://news.wbfo.org/post/canoe-sculpture-being-moved-albright-knox-expansion

www.albrightknox.org/artworks/201038-monochrome-i-built-live-anywhere-home-here

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/news/2019/09/05/albright-knox-sculpture-expansion-art

www.clarkrigging.com/contact-clark-rigging-rental-ny.php