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Mesa Arts Center public art projects.
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Color Walk
Beth Galston
Somerville, Massachusetts
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Fragmented Landscape
Ned Kahn
Sebastopol, California
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Light Storm
Catherine Widgery
Truro, Massachusetts
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Three public art projects by nationally known artists have been incorporated into the design of the new Mesa Arts Center. The essential material of all three projects is light.
Beth Galston's Color Walk consists of two ribbons of colored glass that are affixed to the metal guardrails of the second and third levels on the west façade of the educational building. The imagery for the glass is based on photographs the artist took in Mesa of the sky at dusk during a rainstorm. The photographs were digitally altered to create a painterly effect creating the experience of pure color and light. The glass panels interact with the intense sunlight to project light and color into the bridge walkways.
Two shade screens, by artist Ned Kahn, adorn the west-facing wall of the Theaters building. Each screen consists of thousands of small aluminum panels that are activated by wind. Each panel contains a portion of a larger image, hence the title, Fragmented Landscape. The panels of the smaller screen are perforated with different sized holes that, when viewed from a distance, create a photographic image of sand dunes. A blue-anodized finish that coats the larger screen's panels creates the impression of a vertical sheet of water, rippled by the wind.
Light Storm, by artist Catherine Widgery, consists of over 40,000 stainless steel discs imbedded into the paving inside and outside the theater lobbies. In response to Ned Kahn's Fragmented Landscape, the discs are arranged in a spiraling spray as if the shade screen filled with holes had rained down the silver discs and the wind of the desert had caught them and sent them swirling through the landscape. These patterns are highly charged with movement, reflecting the various colors of the Center.
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