Client: US GSA

Overview

NON-SIGN II – fall 2010
Lead Pencil Studio: Annie Han Daniel Mihalyo
Scale: 30'(h) x 50'(w) x 3'(d)
Materials: blackened and welded stainless steel rod (.8″ ɸ)

Goals

A site specific artwork referencing a full-scale highway billboard installed to accompany an expanded US border inspection & customs station along interstate 5 in Blaine, Washington. Borrowing the effectiveness of billboards to redirect attention away from the landscape at-large, this permanently open aperture between nations works to frame nothing more than a clear view of the changing atmospheric conditions beyond - refocusing attention away from the manmade environment and altering the presumed functions of signage in general.

Process

This work was created in just under one year and fabricated in six major pieces at the Central District (Seattle) shop of Lead Pencil Studio. Working alongside Lead Pencil Studio were Ian Gill and Greg Lewis who were instrumental as fabrication leads during production and installation. This time-lapse video was created by Ian Gill as a document of the installation phase of Non-Sign II using a canon t1i with the stock lens and a ti-82 calculator as an intervalometer. Each segment of the video represents one day, though not all days of the 14 day install were documented via time-lapse.
This project is a commission by the US GSA 'design excellence and the arts' program and the architect of the border & customs building is Bohlin Cywinski Jackson.

Additional Information

This project is a commission by the US GSA 'design excellence and the arts' program and the architect of the border & customs building is Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. The music behind this video is Heard Them Stirring by Fleet Foxes - find them at fleetfoxes.com/