Improvisation at Artpark: Composing Sam Gilliam’s Custom Road Slide

In 1977, African American artist Sam Gilliam (1933-2022) orchestrated a constantly changing, month-long event along the Niagara River Gorge in Lewiston, New York. Named Custom Road Slide, the dynamic assemblage of fabric, rocks, and wood was radically open to the public for Q&A and to the ecosystem’s high winds. Gilliam’s improvisatory approach, stemming from his knowledge of postwar jazz, is this paper’s primary focus. I also consider the unique patronage of Artpark, a state park that brought some of the country’s most advanced art to Western New York in the 1970s and 80s. My argument recasts the artist as a musically inclined “composer” who worked with all media, contrary to his general reputation as a painter. Accordingly, contemporaneous improvisations by the saxophonist Ornette Coleman and violinist Laurie Anderson are brought in to help contextualize Gilliam’s process-based art.