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Wayfinding

An Exhibition as Part of the Public Art Initiative

Friday, July 12, 2024Friday, October 17, 2025

Chloë Bass (American, born 1984), Wayfinding, 2024. Photo: Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum. 

Location: Buffalo AKG Campus and Frederick Law Olmsted’s Delaware Park 


Wayfinding is a meditative installation of forty-eight sculptural signs placed throughout the grounds of Delaware Park and the Buffalo AKG campus. Through a combination of evocative and lyrical prose and archival images, Bass’s sculptures encourage moments of private reflection in public space.

The work revolves around five central questions written by the artist:

How much of care is patience?
How much of life is coping?
How much of love is attention?
How much of hope is forgetting?
How much of belief is encounter?

Chloë Bass (American, born 1984), Wayfinding, 2024. Photo: Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum. 

Chloë Bass (American, born 1984), Wayfinding, 2024. Photo: Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum. 

Chloë Bass (American, born 1984), Wayfinding, 2024. Photo: Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum. 

Chloë Bass (American, born 1984), Wayfinding, 2024. Photo: Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum. 

Chloë Bass (American, born 1984), Wayfinding, 2024. Photo: Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum. 

Chloë Bass (American, born 1984), Wayfinding, 2024. Photo: Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum. 

And a question written specifically for the Buffalo installation of this work:

How much of truth is coherence?

From these simple yet profound prompts, the artist seeks to build a bridge between internal thought and external social and civic dialogue. Discovery is a fundamental element of this installation. The work is meant to appear and disappear from view. There is no way to “see” the work all at once. There are only discrete experiences that add up to a larger whole, relying on the landscape and a viewer’s unique journey, the signs they notice, and the natural surroundings they observe. 

View the locations of the artworks included in Wayfinding and the questions they present here

Wayfinding first began at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2019–20), before traveling to the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis (2021) and the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles (2022–23).

Wayfinding has been acquired into the Buffalo AKG's Public Art Collection. This temporary installation is presented by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in conjunction with Buffalo Olmstead Parks Conservancy, with approval from the City of Buffalo Department of Public Works and the Buffalo Arts Commission. 


The Frederick Law Olmsted landscape occupies a special place in our community, with visitors seeking its surroundings for many different purposes and aims. Though the installation of this work temporarily alters the landscape, the Buffalo AKG and BOPC will return the landscape to its original condition after the exhibition period ends in October 2025. Of particular concern is the health and safety of our local, regional, and migrating bird populations. The reflective surfaces of the work have been specially treated with a UV coating that appears solid to birds to avoid bird strikes. In five years of exhibition at locations throughout the United States there has never been a reported incident of bird strike or fatalities.
 
In addition, the AKG will continue to work with our partners at BOPC and you, the community, to ensure your safety during the changing seasons. We will take into account the various uses of the park, including walking, running, snowshoeing, sledding, and skiing. 

We welcome you to share your feedback, testimonials, affirmations, responses to the artwork’s prompts, questions, or concerns here

  • A clear sign with an image of holding hands in the center

    AKGo! Audio Experience

    The exhibition is accompanied by an audio artwork. This essayistic recording is sourced from original writing, Yelp reviews, reports from the National Institutes for Health, and landscape design textbooks. The audio guide is read by Chloë Bass, Eric Jones, Faith Quinn, Gail Wells, and Andrea Wenglowskyj.

  • Headshot of a woman with short dark hair, medium skin tone, wearing a grey shirt, leaning against a railing looking out a window

    About Chloë Bass

    Chloë Bass is a New York City–based artist who works in performance, publications, installation, and social spaces. She uses daily life as a subject for deep research into scales of human intimacy, from the personal to the civic. Wayfinding is a sub-project of Obligation To Others Holds Me In My Place, an investigation of intimacy within the immediate family. Bass has held numerous national fellowships and artist residencies, with her work appearing nationally and internationally.

Dedication

During the production of this exhibition, one of the project’s participants, Gail Wells, passed away. She cared deeply about the landscape we share together. We dedicate this exhibition to her work.


This installation is made possible by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in conjunction with Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, with approval from the City of Buffalo Department of Public Works and the Buffalo Arts Commission. 

Initiative Sponsors

The Public Art Initiative is supported by the County of Erie and the City of Buffalo.

Erie County seal
Seal of the City of Buffalo