Client: Lowney Architects

Location: Oakland, CA, United States

Completion date: 2018

Artwork budget: $30,000

Project Team

Architect

Nickolos Gomez

Lowney Architects

Architect

Ken Lowney

Lowney Architects

Artist

Raylene Gorum

Overview

Commissioned to energize these architectural offices and to honor the Mayor of Oakland who was hosted in this space as she faced re-election. The black and white scales of the “Possibility Dragon” has were generating from a reading from the ancient Chinese Book of Changes, the I Ching. The reading of “Mutual Alienation” turning to “Great Power” delighted the Mayor while the employees gave positive feedback about their office now being the kind of space they looked forward to entering.

Goals

The piece provides a lot of bang for the buck with parts of the dragon body appearing in various spaces. The tail greets visitors in the stairwell. The body is partially visible in the reception and turns a corner toward the open work floorplan while the head presides over the conference room. Visitors are immediately intrigued.

Process

The artist was contacted by the designer and client representative. An extraordinarily short deadline did not preclude dialog between the three parties, which was facilitated by digital mock-ups. The collaboration yielded a terrific result on an accelerated timeline.

Additional Information

Start to finish, the project was completed in less than a month.