Illuminating the Environment -htc

Site Specificity: 

Miwon Kwon’s Site Specificity reading led me to Leo Villareal’s light installations work.  He’s the artist who has installed lights on the Bay Bridge until recently.  Unlike the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge is a utilitarian bridge spanning the San Francisco Bay.  The bridge is used by the travelers and commuters mainly as a way to get from one city to another over the expanse of body of water.  There are no places to stop or to admire the views on the bridge like the Golden Gate Bridge.  It is painted steel grey and double decked for maximum accommodation to the amount of traffic flow.  It’s a workmen’s bridge.  This light display on the bridge brought some long overdue recognition and attention to the bridge as it connected the idea of services to art.

 

Here's a YouTube video of the opening day of the Bay Lights in March, 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blgjUb6wg5s 

Like many large projects, putting up 25000 lights across 1.8 miles took lots of preparation, organization, monetary means and artistry.  The project is privately funded and had raised 8 million dollars and took over two years to execute.  The work of art was not for the artist to decide if it would be permanent, but the people.

 

 

Villareal is interested in a combination of scale, element of time, virtual reality and computer tools.  In the dynamic environment of the constant changes of open waterway, the lights capture those moments of air, wave, fog, wind, cars, motions, and reflection on the water below.  The artist interpreting, distilling and distributing them onto the bridge by first building a 6ft long, 1 ft tall model of the bridge to work out the installation concepts, software and as a prototype to show potential donor audiences.  

As the largest light sculpture, the Bay Lights are currently turned off while going through some cable maintenance.  It will be back on in 2016.