Primordial Garden

Client: Texas Tech University

Location: Lubbock, TX, United States

Completion date: 2016

Artwork budget: $89,000

Project Team

Artist

Adela Andea

Other

Sandia Construction

Architect

Parkhill, Smith & Cooper, Inc.

Overview

The immersive light installation is for the El Centro gathering area within the College of Human Sciences, Texas Tech, Lubbock, TX. The project consists of seven sculptural units installed in space of 32ft x 22 ft at a height from 16 ft to 22 ft.The arrangement of the light sculptures, intertwined with flex neon and colorful Plexiglas tubes, flow in space close to the ceiling creating a web of lights and colors, a vibrant and reenergizing space. The sculptures reveal various layers of color through various combinations of plastics.

Goals

The architecture of this space offers an excellent context for the installation, allowing the artwork to maintain its unique vibrant characteristics. This synergy between the light installation and the vastness of the space contributes to the importance of this location for the college, a place of both work and relaxation, a place of contemplation on the students’ academic aspirations. More details of the installation are viewed through the windows on the second floor, at both ends of the installation, enhancing the experience of the viewer from the eye level.

Process

I have worked with several teams for the realization of this project: architects, structural engineers, fabricators and construction companies. The building ceiling had to be retrofitted to support my installation and a dedicated electrical circuit has been added for the lights. The work has been design by Parkhill, Smith and Cooper architecture firm and it has been executed by Sandia Construction. The current site modifications and my artwork also inspired the University to continue my vision and the aesthetic transformation with several building enhancements.

Additional Information

This futuristic eco-system is meant to inspire and contemplate on the impact of human actions on our natural environment. The title of the installation, Primordial Gardens, suggests an idealized form of nature, an original state or a mysterious point of inception. In this state, life is defined by the organic and the inorganic as biological systems. However the conversation is placed in the present socio-economic and political system, where environment is constructed and destroyed according to ideas generated by the commodification of culture. The manmade materials are used to create artificial environments that convey “beauty” equal to nature.