A dazzling, wind-driven sculpture takes over L.A.’s Pershing Square this week

Pershing Square, the five acre park at the center of Downtown Los Angeles, has been in the news quite a bit recently. The 150-year-old park has been seen as an eyesore in the area, an underused and dislocated public park isolated from the city’s growing street life, elevated atop a subterranean parking garage. Pershing Square’s reputation had fallen into such ill repute that in 2015, residents and business people came together to draft a plan for replacing the park with something new. That process culminated this Spring, when French landscape architects Agence Ter were selected as the winners of a public competition held to replace Pershing Square with a new park. The firm’s proposal for the city’s most historic open space aims to “get rid of trendy design approaches” that have plagued the park’s prior redesigns and provide, as Agence Ter partner Henri Bava declared at the announcement ceremony, a “timeless design able to change with the neighborhood.”

Which is why you might be a bit surprised to learn that this week, Pershing Square is playing host to Liquid Shard, the latest collaborative public art project by L.A.-based artist Patrick Shearn of Poetic Kinetics. His work, a collaboration with students attending the Architectural Association Visiting School Los Angeles (AAVSLA) summer program, under the direction of Eulalia Moran and tutor Devin Gharakhanian of SuperArchitects, the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, and the arts organization NOW Art L.A., takes the shape of a mesmerizing, iridescent wind-activated sculpture. The 15,000 square foot installation is made of two layers of holographic mylar connected with monofilament that flitter in the wind, creating a dazzling and otherworldly atmosphere in the park. The installation’s layers, hovering between 15 and 115 feet above the square, give the impression of a million tiny things moving in unison. Shearn told AN over telephone that the inspiration for the piece came from murmuring, the swarm behavior schools of fish and flocks of birds engage in as they move in unison.

Shearn, who is well-known on the music festival circuit as the artist behind the giant, fully animatronic astronaut sculpture showcased at the 2015 Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Coachella Valley, California, developed the installation with AAVS students as part of a summer seminar. During the course, students produced their own versions of the installation, with the class coming together in the final weeks to work on a full-scale version developed by Shearn for Pershing Square.

Read more: https://archpaper.com/2016/08/pershing-square-liquid-shard/ 

‘Liquid Shard’ art installation makes waves in Pershing Square

A Suspended sea of delicate silver strands ripples over Pershing Square and casts moving shadows over pedestrians who pass underneath.

The “Liquid Shard” art installation, made from holographic mylar and monofilament, stretches 15,000 sq ft. across the park and rises and falls like a mystical giant, slithering through the wind.

Designed and built by artist Patrick Shearn, the new installation has become an instant hit, mesmerizing downtown residents, office workers and tourists alike, while spawning thousands of posts on social media. The exhibit is part of an on-going effort by the city of Los Angeles to support public art displays.

“Not exactly sure what it is, why it’s here or who put it there but Pershing Square was shimmering today,” said nkao in an Instagram post..

In another post, danaworkman said, “The real magic happens when the wind kicks up, launching it into a beautiful rolling wave across #pershingsquare.”

Representatives from the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department and Now Art LA, a non-profit group that curates public art throughout the city, originally approached Shearn with the idea to create an installation for the centrally located public park.

“We wanted to have the piece in downtown LA, to showcase it in a space where there are a lot of people gathering, and where it would have a strong architectural and spacial impact,” said Carmen Zella, co-founder of Now Art LA. “Pershing Square was the perfect fit.”

Shearn collaborated with twelve students attending the Architectural Association Visiting School during a 10-day design workshop. The students, from 18 to 22-years-old, represented countries from around the globe, including Turkey, Kuwait, Egypt, China and Korea.

The team used 3-D computer modeling to assess how the structure would hang and move in the space. They then worked to construct their design from material that Shearn had previously spent weeks putting together — attaching thousands of metallic strips to a grid of high-tech fiber rope and bungee cords.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-liquid-shard-20160804-snap-story.html