The “Cozmic Culvert” lights up the darkest time of year
Photo of the “Cozmic Culvert” taken recently in Girdwood. (Photo by Chase Berenson)
By Chase Berenson
TNews Staffwriter
As people drive or walk Timberline Drive, they may notice the Cozmic Culver, a new artistic and scientific installation in front of Riley Bennett and Max Vockner’s home at 540 Timberline. The section of 9-foot culvert installed by the roadside with a hanging bench inside is much more than just a spot for weary walkers making their way up the road. Once someone sits inside the culvert and sees the mural curving around two-thirds of the inner wall, then the true art and soul of the piece becomesvisible.
Vockner, a concrete worker, salvaged the section of culvert and brought it home years ago to start this piece. The piece was a team effort of many Girdwood locals working together, and it serves as a memorial to Michael Bennett, Riley Bennett’s father, who passed away around Winter Solstice in 2023.
The mural shows a stylized version of the night sky over Girdwood, with some specific scientific details to reference the Winter Solstice. While sitting on the bench, the “sky” directly overhead is a fantasy version of a night sky. Tommy O’Malley, one of the artists on the project and perhaps better known in Girdwood as Tommy Salami, said that there are not many constellations overhead in the northern skies, which left them “free to have some fun” with that part of the sky. The swirling artistic vision of the stars was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night, as well as the misty night sky that O’Malley witnessed on a trip to the Pyrenees in France.
Close-up view of the “Cozmic Culvert” located in Girdwood. (Photo by Chase Berenson)
The artistic sky to the right of a person sitting on the bench is more prosaic than the overhead fantasy, and it grounds the artwork in Girdwood by showcasing the silhouettes of Mount Alyeska and Max’s Mountain while also featuring the spruce trees in the foreground that are visible from the bench itself. To the other side of the bench, the artistic sky shows the familiar constellation the Big Dipper. In our true night sky, the Big Dipper points the way to Polaris, or the North Star. Local astronomer John Gallup joined the team working on the project to add scientific realism to the piece. On the Winter Solstice, the piece’s Big Dipper points to the North Star in the physical night sky. The North Star is visible from the bench through the open branches of the spruce and cottonwood trees surrounding the Culvert. This means that on the Winter Solstice the Cozmic Culvert functions as an astrolabe, an ancient astronomical tool used for navigation by assisting mariners and others in finding the North Star. This also allows the culvert and the actual night sky work together to recreate the design of the state flag of Alaska.
Girdwood is home to significant amounts of public art, but the Cozmic Culvert stands out as one of the few pieces of art made for the wintertime. Our community has several murals, but many of them get covered in snow during the winter; even the ones that don’t predominantly feature summer designs such as flowers. This one is a winter design, and the culvert itself protects the artwork from snowfall.
This scientific and artistic piece was truly a community effort, put together thanks to the efforts of Vockner, Bennett, O’Malley, and Gallup, as well as local artists Thalia Wilkinson, Jim Kaiser, Julie Johnson, a group of friends playfully known as the Pips, and many others.
Another view of the “Cozmic Culvert” on Winter Solstice. (Photo by Chase Berenson)