The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Blending a fascination for machines and craftsmanship with an interest in language and wordplay, Roman De Salvo's work is imbued with wit and playfulness. Liquid Ballistic is the first Main Street Sculpture project to invite visitor interaction. This sculpture of a life-size cannon resembles old artillery, but it playfully comments upon outdoor recreation, roadside Americana, and idyllic pastimes and pleasures. The cannon, made from mahogany, is actually a seesaw that discharges a gentle stream of water from its muzzle when two people teeter-totter. In giving the cannon this function, de Salvo blunts its perceived function as a weapon, and instead finds a friendlier application for this piece of history. Perfectly paired with Ridgefield's historic eighteenth-century Main Street, Liquid Ballistic will surprise passersby as a humorous, absurd, and poignant sculpture.