This public art installation by Shane Allbritton and Norman Lee of RE:site for the Durham Police Department is comprised of two pieces, one sited in front of the building and the other in the lobby, so both are visible when a visitor is outside the building. The exterior piece, Woven Shield, is an abstraction of the Durham Police shield formed from three intersecting elements. Colorful rods weave between these three elements, evoking the convergence of fibers being pulled through a loom. This weaving is meant to serve as a metaphor for the community; as the rods weave together, producing unexpected colors in a woven shield, so too does the community grow and change as everyone comes together.

The interior piece, Sewing Peace, takes an excerpt from the Oath of Office for the Police and transforms it into a colorful wall installation. Again making use of weaving techniques, each letter in the excerpt becomes a weaving heddle that separates strands of fiber before they converge to a point. These heddles are oriented perpendicular to the wall so the excerpt is legible from below, but from afar the strands evoke a colorful patchwork quilt.

Metalab provided construction management services for this project, translating the concept into fabrication documents, coordinating fabrication, and overseeing installation onsite.