Client: Western Oregon University, Health & Wellness Center
Architect: Opsis Architecture
Photo credits: Mark Smith
Technique: Digitally printed laminated safety glass
DESCRIPTION: This project was created to span one length of a safety fence alongside a mezzanine level running track in a University fitness center. "Cool to Warm, Warm to Cool" investigates the spiritual essence of form and movement. Here, human figures have disappeared and are replaced by surrogates from the animal kingdom. In the frieze installation, the two creatures are seen facing off from opposite directions, moving toward one another until they merge and overlap. Color-coded on both sides, the wolf’s red-orange intensity eventually co-mingles with the dove’s blue-green grace and evasiveness.
In an earlier project, I went to the Glasmalerei in Paderborn and participated in the fabrication of the work—that was a lot of fun and very informative. For my Warm to Cool project, there was limited time, so I created several digital samples working with Peter Kaufmann, who had them fabricated in Germany and sent back to the US. The turnaround was very fast. With my imagery, I was trying to suggest a type of sequenced movement similar in effect, to the multiple overlayed exposures in an early Etienne-Jules Marey photograph. To achieve that ghosting quality, Peter and I were manipulating the images by printing on separate sheets of laminated glass. In the samples, the studio was able to produce a series of panels with differing levels of translucency, so that we could establish just the necessary amount of atmospheric depth needed when light filtered through. I really appreciated the kind of nuanced attention that was given to those details. It made a big difference in overall quality of the project.
- Mark Smith, Artist