An ambitious new public art display is set to begin its installation this month near the ASU downtown Phoenix campus this month.
Installation for American artist Janet Echelman’s sculpture — planned for Central Avenue and Van Buren Street — will begin in March, followed by the lighting plan, Echelman said.
“You’ll see [the sculpture] unfolding before your eyes,” she said.
The sculpture will change colors with the lighting design plan, Echelman said. It is also proposed to change color with age.
The outside of the sculpture is going to be blue and purple, while the inner part is orange and yellow, she said.
The material used to create the form can be recycled and replaced for one-fifth of the cost of Teflon, which was the material Echelman originally chose, she said.
The netting for the piece is being created in Tucson, she said.
The title of the sculpture is “Her Secret is Patience,” a line from Ralph Waldo Emerson, she said.
Echelman said that she was inspired by the Phoenix sky, the clouds and their shadows.
“It’s like creating cloud shadow in the park,” she said.
Digital outlines of the prospective sculpture were made to show shadows throughout the day at 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., she said.
Echelman went to the proposed site near the downtown Phoenix ASU campus to estimate how long it might take visitors to observe the piece and what different views of it might look like, she said.
Echelman also had to decide whether the sculpture should be one solid piece or diffused throughout the park, she said.
“I think of it as drawing in three dimensions,” she said.
Echelman has had art installations in a dozen countries throughout Asia, Europe and North America, according to the Phoenix Art Museum.
She spent time in the Desert Botanical Garden, observing the flora when designing her downtown Phoenix sculpture, she said.
The way the desert flowers wait to bloom just once further solidified the title for her piece, she said.
“Nature is better than anything I can do,” she said.
Reach the reporter at jlutjeme@asu.edu.
