Client: Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

Overview

Within the highly constructed desert environment, 90 Days Over 100 ̊ aimed to alert visitors to the perceptual and phenomenological presence of water and energy. The installation presented a temporary orchestration of thawing ice and channeled sunlight within the context of the museum space over one summer at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, where the temperatures regularly exceed 100 degrees for over 90 days. The form of the wood structure was designed to allow visitors to experience the temporal and physical properties of water as it changed from a solid into liquid. Light intensity, humidity, and air temperature evolved as the ice melted from above, resulting in rivulets of water pulsing down the walls and pooling in the basins below. The meltwater was then used to maintain the museum’s landscape in lieu of the irrigation system.

Goals

This commissioned artwork inaugurated the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Arts series Art + Architecture with the goal of engaging architects to create environments in response to the museum's site located in Arizona. The project aimed to alert visitors to the relationship between water and electricity in a highly constructed desert environment.