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All of these pictures were taken by Tom Dickinson at the University of Colorado-Boulder.  The link to his photo page is now dead, so I have to thank him for the use of these here.


"Anton "Tony" Flatoff...began building what he now calls Tony's Fan Fair forty years ago (1953 est.), when a large fan was thrown out at the Whiting Hotel, where he worked as a maintenance man."
- from the book "Sacred Spaces and Other Places"


"Tony's daughter, Kathy, remembered: 'He took it home and placed it in the yard, gradually adding more smaller ones.  As years went by, many people and some businesses would give additional fans.  Currently there are 80 fans, requiring oiling 2-3 times per year and needing replacement of fans and shafts.  He kept expanding his 'Fan Fair' because he lives next to Highway 10 where many people would be able to see it.' "
- from the book "Sacred Spaces and Other Places"


"The Fan Fair is a large, formal sculpture made of red and silver upright posts and silver fans that spin in the wind.  Shaped somewhat like a large pipe organ, the bright colors glisten against a backdrop of trees, layering abstracted shadows on leaves and branches."
- from the book "Sacred Spaces and Other Places"


"Painted wood airplanes raised on posts in the garden evoke his experience in the second World War; their proximity to the Fan Fair suggests a kind of kinetic memorial.  Small fan blades appear also on each window shutter of the Flatoff house and in other areas of the garden---quotations of his Fan Fair, bonding it to home and landscape"
- from the book "Sacred Spaces and Other Places"



updated 12-09-08  •  all images excluding those attributed to others are property of Wisconsinosity.com