Floor of Great Hall, Level 1
When artist James Casebere finished his work for the Minnesota Historical Society, the floor itself was a work of art. Ten images, representing Minnesota’s history and character, had been transformed into the components of a giant charm bracelet. But that bracelet isn’t whole; its shattered pieces appear to have fallen into the floor of the Great Hall. The charms were sculpted out of three-eighths-inch-thick bronze plates, then embedded in concrete. Terrazzo, a black, stone-like substance, was poured over the concrete, encasing the charms.
The charms and what they represent: tractor (agriculture); printer’s ink roller (communication and freedom of speech); tipi (Minnesota’s Native American population); mill (Minnesota’s lumbering and flour milling industries); house from Rondo Avenue (African Americans in Minnesota history); power plant (Prairie Island nuclear power plant on the Mississippi River); turtle (Ojibwe totem for medicine and healing); bear (Ojibwe totem for defense and warriors); fish (Ojibwe totem for learning and teachers); and whooping crane (Ojibwe totem for leadership and direction).
Some charms symbolize a sense of loss and irony. The ink roller can represent freedom of speech, or the lack of it. Two of the symbols, the house from Rondo and the power plant from Prairie Island, represent displaced people. St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood was home to a thriving African American community until the construction of Interstate 94 in the 1960s. And one of the last remaining populations of Dakota Indians in Minnesota lives on Prairie Island.
The four animal symbols are part of a group of five Ojibwe totems. The fifth totem symbolizes sustenance. In the bracelet it has been replaced by the tractor. The whooping crane, which was placed outside the charm, is an endangered species. The crane’s position in relation to the rest of the charms can be interpreted to mean that it is flying into the light of the Great Hall windows, or that it is flying out of the chain of Minnesota history. Casebere uses it as a metaphor for history in general.
Even the links are symbolic. Crooked linked lines, instead of a smooth circle, represent the chain. This symbolizes an Ojibwe ceremony that reminds participants of life’s temptations to stray from the straight path. Native American rock carvings and the concept of cyclical time also influenced the artist.