TALKING CONTINENTS, 2003
Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Commissioned by: Art in Public Places Commission, City of Jacksonville, Florida, 2003
Polyester resin, stainless steel, wood and light
6 elements of 12 meter high
Talking Continents consists of a group of six sculptures cast in fiberglass, internally lit with powerful, colored LEDs installed atop 30 foot steel poles in carefully chosen locations around the new Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. Each pole has a bench made of teakwood, below which LEDs cast a glow, corresponding to the color above, upon the sidewalk. The figures are conceived as a universal embodiment of humanity, symbolizing the world's inhabited continents in a sort of supernatural communication (and communion) with each other.
The work is about time as well as form; the lighting shifts slowly from color, creating the sense that the figure appear to move in and out of "conversation" with each other. The works are lit beginning at dusk, with a light-sensor mechanism, and are programmed individually to shift colors at different rates, resulting in seemingly random phasing from color to color and combinations among the figures. The glass windows, thus came the idea for the colors; and by the intensity of the Jacksonville sky, which the noted in his dedication address.
"I wanted to created a reason for people to look up the sky, which, in Jacksonville, is incredible."
The height of the figure was determined by the terrace above the main entrance to the Arena, which is at a level with the figure, so they can be experienced from below and the same plane. During events, when the courtyard is crowed, the benches are usually packed and the lights and colors reflect the energy and excitement created by people coming together. At quieter times they generate a reflective mood especially if one has the time to watch them at leisure.
Jacksonville Art in Public Places Commission