In 2019, artists Ta-coumba T. Aiken and Seitu Jones and poet Rosemary Soyini Vinelle Guyton collaborated to produce the work Shadows at the Crossroads for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

Each individual places community at the center of their art-making practice.

Over the past four decades, Ta-coumba T. Aiken (b. 1952) has produced more than 300 public artworks in the Twin Cities and beyond. He often creates these collaboratively with members of the community.

Aiken notes, “I create my art to heal the hearts of people and their communities by evoking a positive spirit.”

St. Paul-based artist Seitu Jones (b. 1951) creates communal events, temporary sculptures, and public installations. He believes that artists should use their work to empower their communities.

One of his best-known projects is The Community Meal, first presented in St. Paul’s culturally diverse Frogtown neighborhood in 2014. The work featured a celebratory gathering around a half-mile long table and drew attention to issues like culinary traditions and access to fresh food.

Rosemary Soyini Vinelle Guyton (b. 1947) is a St. Paul-based writer, poet, environmentalist, and flower gardener. Her work explores ways African American women navigate and contribute to Minnesota’s cultural and historical landscape.

In 1992, the three artists partnered to create a series of bronze sculptures called Shadows of Spirit, which they embedded in the sidewalks along Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. The sculptures represented the shadows of seven individuals who were part of the history of the city.

And in the summer of 2019, the series expanded into the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

Shadows at the Crossroads features seven new shadows cast in bronze or etched in concrete. One is made from a material that is only visible when splashed with water.

Five of the sculptures celebrate real individuals significant in Minnesota’s history. The remaining two represent meditations on the concepts of childhood and time.

The identities of the figures were guided by extensive research conducted by Soyini Guyton. She then created poems honoring the stories of each individual.

To transform these stories into sculptures, Aiken and Jones met with many community members and traced individuals’ shadows in various positions. They often worked on days marking spiritual and seasonal transitions, such as the winter and summer solstices.

They then matched seven final drawings to the figures in Guyton’s poems.

From Eliza Winston, who successfully sued for her freedom from enslavement in 1860, after she had traveled from Mississippi to St. Anthony, Minnesota …

… to the late artist, poet, and activist Kirk Washington Jr., who had deep roots in the North Minneapolis neighborhood. Through his work, he brought communities together around such issues as racism, housing inequities, police brutality, and gun violence.

Placed throughout the Garden’s pedestrian walkways, the shadows are meant to be explored on foot. At particular times of day, visitors might even be able to line up their own shadows with the sculptures, and, as the artists describe, “stand in the shadows of those who came before.”

“When you stand close to one, there is a weaving and crossing of existence between the viewers, their own shadows, and the shadow sculptures; the past and the present.” —Ta-coumba T. Aiken

Shadows at the Crossroads creates a bridge between the people who walked on this land in our history and those of us who walk in their legacy today. Aiken, Jones, and Guyton remind us that our intentions and actions are part of a lineage; we are never alone.

More on the artists and their work:
In the Shadows of our Ancestors
A Seat at the Table
Sister Friend: Ta-coumba Aiken’s Brief Encounters with Dr. Maya Angelou

Ta-coumba T. Aiken (US, b. 1952), Rosemary Soyini Vinelle Guyton (US, b. 1947), and Seitu Jones (US, b. 1951)
Shadows at the Crossroads (2019)
bronze, etched concrete, water-resistant coating on concrete

Collection Walker Art Center

Commissioned with funds from the T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2019

seven parts: Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa (Cloud Man), Harriet Robinson Scott, Eliza Winston, Untitled (Child), Time, Siah Armajani, Kirk Washington, Jr.

Poetry by Rosemary Soyini Vinelle Guyton and Kirk Washington Jr. (US, 1975–2016)

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is a project of the Walker Art Center and Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board. 

Ta-Coumba T. Aiken portrait, photo: Alex Tuthill-Preus

Images of artworks by Ta-Coumba T. Aiken, courtesy the artist

Seitu Jones portrait, courtesy the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts

Seitu Jones at The Community Meal, September 14, 2014, photo courtesy Public Art Saint Paul

Rosemary Soyini Vinelle Guyton portrait, courtesy Walker Art Center

With filmed footage by Christian Jensen and audio by Jamal Aiken