A dramatic addition to the city’s skyline is expected to be visible from as far away as the University of B.C. when a new public art LED lighting installation is turned on Wednesday evening at West Pender Place in Coal Harbour.Created by Dutch artist Tamar Frank, the light installation is on the south-facing concrete exterior of the two towers at 1499 West Pender: the 120-metre west tower (36 storeys) and the shorter 30-metre east tower (10 storeys).
The eight-metre-long horizontal LED strips will change colour and pattern according to 40 pre-set computerized patterns.
The lights will, however, be dimmed overnight to avoid disturbing area residents.
Frank said she based the colour palette and the changing light pattern on the building’s architecture, the city’s setting and the changing seasonal colours. Coming from a country known for its flat terrain, Frank said what struck her most clearly about Vancouver is its backdrop of mountains.
“I’m fascinated by mountains because I come from a place that doesn’t have any,” she said Wednesday. “I’m completely in awe of the mountains – I find them completely mesmerizing.”
One of the dramatic light patterns is in the shape of a vertically oriented rectangle bisected by a diagonal running from top to bottom. The shape refers to both the mountains across Burrard Inlet and the diagonals on the building.
Another pattern of light will resemble the cascade of water down the side of the building. One pattern she called Midnight is a solid rectangle of deep, deep blue. For one of the spring patterns, she’s chosen pink because of cherry blossoms. The summer palette is much richer and diverse while orange starts to dominate in autumn as the leaves turn colour.
“The colour settings change very gradually: They fade in one to the other within a few minutes,” she explained. “They kind of blend into each other. I let myself be inspired by the changes of the season and the changes of different time of day.”
The low-energy LED lights will be running 24 hours a day but at a lower intensity during daylight hours and after about midnight so as not to disturb nearby residents. The lights have an estimated life span of 10 years at full intensity.
Frank hasn’t named her work and calls it simply the West Pender light art installation. The $400,000 art work was paid for by Reliance Properties as part of a program that requires developers of projects greater than 100,000 square feet to set aside money for public art.
Described as an example of contemporary modernism, West Pender Place has become one the city’s most distinctive and handsome buildings. It was designed by architect Jim Hancock of IBI/HB Architects.
As a light artist, Frank follows in the footsteps of light artists from the U.S. such as Robert Irwin, Dan Flavin and James Turrell. In the past, light artists often haven’t been taken seriously because the esthetic beauty or perceptual quality of their work didn’t fit with conceptual and political ideas that dominated contemporary art starting in the 1980s. But Frank said that’s changing, especially in Europe where using light to create art is a growing movement.
“There is a new appreciation for art being able to exist as an esthetic experience,” she said.
“I really respond to the environment, the surroundings and the architecture. What I make I want to be part of a perceptual experience and heighten awareness of how we perceive. Sometimes I also make spaces in exhibitions and museums where the viewer is completely enveloped by light and undergoes different experiences in seeing.”
Frank said West Pender Place is her first project in North America. She hopes it provides an opening for her to create more light art installations in Canada and the U.S.
Frank said she’s been taken aback by the positive response.
“The response has been phenomenal,” she said. “I’m almost bashful about the way people have been responding and complimenting me on the work.”
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