Client: JhSnyder and Co.
Location: Hollywood, CA, United States
Completion date: 2019
Artwork budget: $450,000
Project Team
Public Art Consultant
Corinne Weitzman
Weitzman Art Consulting
Client
Michael Wise
Jh Snyder
Structural engineering
Anna Tam
Nous Engineering
Steel fabrication
Edwin Ramirez
Ramirez Ironworks Group
Enamelled steel graphics panels
Steve Vandyk
KVO Industries
site installation
Plas-Tal Manufacturing Co.
Overview
This 50 foot by 10 foot tall sculpture by Jenna Didier flanks a pedestrian walkway in Hollywood. An uncoiling spring of steel ribbons admits sight lines through the gaps to graphics mounted within the sculpture. As viewers walk/ drive/ scoot past, the graphics animate. The animation is analog – using a barrier grid technique (similar to another early cinematic device, the zoetrope — only one walks past it instead of spinning it). LEDs change color and bring different graphic layers to the foreground depending on the soil moisture levels of the catchment basin beneath the sculpture. Water levels vary depending on storm events – dramatizing the function of the catchment basin as an “urban spring” that slowly releases water into the watershed.
Didier’s work often incorporates environmentally-responsible techniques and promotes awareness of the reciprocal relationship of humans and their environment.
Goals
The imagery contained within the sculpture reminds one of the treasurous waters one must tread while striving to “make it” in Hollywood. An inquisitive viewer will find a deeper connection to the land Hollywood was built upon and its water cycle. The artwork is perched over and responds to water levels in the stormwater collection system that flanks the entry lobby. The dynamic presence of the sculpture welcomes daily workers to WeWork Hollywood, and attracts tourists passing by on the sidewalk to stroll over for a closer look at the animations swimming within the sculpture as one's perspective shifts. How is Hollywood connected to the watershed? To the sea? The Spring gradually seeps captured stormwater into underground conduits back to the sea.