Mare Undurum - Tempe Center for the Arts, Tempe, AZ - 2008

A collaboration with architect, Barton Myers, and the firm, Architekton, on integrating artworks into the new performing arts center. A series of wave generators in a shallow reflecting pool that encircles the building, create a series of large circular ripples, like huge raindrops falling on a lake, that spread out through the pool in ever-changing patterns. An array of thousands of 3x3” mirrors set into the space between the glass layers of the curtain wall are aimed down to reflect small, moving “snapshots” of the water surface. As the ripples move across the pool, the mirror array visually digitizes the flow pattern. Even though viewers are only actually seeing small snapshots of the wave patterns, the mind fills in the voids. The artwork takes the surface of water, something that people are used to seeing, and subtly convert it into something novel and intriguing. The array of mirrors also functions as a sunshade for the building.

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Parking Structure 9 - Santa Rosa, CA - 2007

A series of stainless steel cables stretched across the space between two circular access ramps of a parking structure. Hanging from the cables are approximately 20,000 small mirrors that move in the wind and bounce beams of sunlight onto the architecture and pavement below. Resembling a series of parallel spider webs, the artwork is visible from many vantage points inside the parking structure and the courtyard below. Intricate patterns of light and shadow, much like the pattern of sunlight filtering through a canopy of trees in a forest, sweep across the ground throughout the day and change with the wind.

 

 

"Prism Tunnel - Children’s Garden, Huntington Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. 2004

Viewers can walk through a tunnel illuminated by intricate patterns of colored light from diffraction gratings in the ceiling. The light patterns change with the time of day and with the seasons. Completed in 2004

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Fire Vortex - Technorama, Winterthur, Switzerland. 1997

Suspended in a dark atrium of the museum, a series of fans and blowers creates a 20 foot (6 meter) tall vortex of swirling fire. The vortex forms over a pool of burning kerosene. The flame spirals up through the spinning outer core of the vortex, leaving a hollow calm in the center. The serpentine motion of the vortex is constantly influenced by air currents in the museum. Visitors view the vortex from the safety of a balcony, but they are still close enough to feel the heat and hear the rumbling sounds that it creates. Completed in 1997.

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Greenhouse Project - San Francisco County Jail, San Bruno, California. 1990

A greenhouse built out of dichroic glass and filled with mist and plants. The building was constructed by the artist and a team of inmates. The open frame structure was designed to create a counterpoint to the oppressive feeling on the adjacent jail. The greenhouse is used by inmates to grow vegetables, flowers and tree seedlings which are planted on city streets. A large block of Sierra granite with a water filled basin provides a peaceful focal point. Funded by the San Francisco Arts Commission.

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