High Iron, a multidisciplinary artwork and interactive rail labor experience, opens to the public on Friday, September 27, 2024. An opening celebration will be held at the corner of 4th and Canby in Laramie, Wyoming between 5:30 and 7 PM. Free to attend, the event includes music, food, and an opportunity to explore the repurposed boxcar turned artwork. The High Iron team includes artists Aubrey Edwards and Conor Mullen along with Laramie Public Art executive director Laura McDermit.
High Iron is a project of Monument Lab’s Re:Generation 2024 with funding through the Mellon Foundation. The opening event has been made possible through a grant from Wyoming Humanities. Partnership support from the City of Laramie and Laramie Public Art Coalition.
“High Iron is a living monument to rail labor,” says McDermit. “Through the lens of art and personal histories, we reframe the narrative of Wyoming. The rich diversity of people who labored on the railroad has been hidden. High Iron uplifts their stories. ”
“There is not a single monument in our state honoring the immigrant labor that built the transcontinental railroad, built our economy, and in turn built our communities. High Iron seeks to rectify this, ” says Edwards.
High Iron will transform as it travels through Wyoming communities impacted by the transcontinental railroad. In Laramie, six additional artists contributed to the boxcar: Michael Chavez, Anjel Garcia, Eirini Linardaki, Amanda Pittman, Karen Vaughan, and John Wilhelm.
Each artwork explores a personal connection to labor or is informed by the communities and land impacted by the rail. Inside the boxcar, three family histories connected to Wyoming through rail labor are highlighted: The Sanchez & Vigil families, the Matsamura & Sunada
families, and the Angeli & Englert families.
After a year of programming in Laramie, High Iron will begin a tour of the state bringing and gathering stories of ancestors who constructed the transcontinental railroad, multigenerational laborers who built the economy of Wyoming, and contemporary rail workers and their unions.
To learn more about High Iron, visit highiron.org.
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About the lead artists:
Aubrey Edwards: Aubrey Dawne Edwards is a visual artist, public anthropologist, educator,
storyteller and memory worker. Her work is grounded in a socially-engaged practice that intersects
the academic, creative, applied, and public spheres. As a historical archaeologist, her research
focuses on the buried labor narratives and the material culture of resistance and labor organizing
during westward expansion.aubreyedwards.com
Conor Mullen: Conor Mullen is an artist who uses creativity, education, and community gatherings
in building equitable and ecologically sustainable futures. He has worked in community organizing,
conservation, graphic design, arts education, and social justice research over the course of the last
15 years. Conor lives in Laramie where he keeps his dog, sketchbooks, and a skateboard close by.
See his art and learn more about his work at www.conormullen.work
About Laramie Public Art Coalition: Laramie Public Art Coalition (LPAC) cultivates belonging,
joy, and curiosity through public art in Albany County, Wyoming. LPAC is an independent,
non-profit 501c3 that provides the greater Laramie community with a structure and inclusive
processes to create successful public art projects.