Fluvio

Paul Trappe

Fluvio, by Paul Trappe of Australia, floats above the prairie plants and flowers as if levitated, no small feat for 24,000 pounds of limestone. The two stones were hewn from a quarry in Valders, Wisconsin, and then trucked to downtown West Bend. There, in the spring and summer of 1993, Trappe created a “community sculpture.” He outlined the form and then tutored hundreds of volunteer “chippers” as they rough-chiseled the piece. Trappe did the finishing strokes. “Fluvio” is an Italian word that means “of the river,” appropriate for a piece on the Riverfront Parkway along the Milwaukee River. Its flowing lines evoke a river image, a contradiction of sorts to its heavy, permanent, fixed nature. Trappe has done community centerpieces in Australia, Europe, and now, the United States. Serigraph and the Torinus family donated “Fluvio.” The sculpture is located in Riverside Park.