Confluence

Confluence is a site-specific public artwork that mimics the nearby confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers in the West Bottoms of Kansas City. The sculpture is composed of two steel armatures that incorporate locally sourced and repurposed materials within the West Bottoms, such as rail line, deconstructed shipping containers, and a deconstructed water tower. Where these two wings meet, a 14-foot arc of water cascades down the face of the structure into a basin hidden beneath a plinth of Kansas limestone — a fountain system intended to run entirely on filtered rainwater collected from the roof of the nearby Hobbs Building. The structure is illuminated at night by converging lines of blue and green neon, river colors chosen to balance against the neighborhood’s warm halogen glow. The project is a collaboration of artists Ben Wolf and Nikita Gale, BNIM, Adam Jones Construction, Dashboard, and others.