City Cut Greens, 2021

City Cut Greens Robert Youds Century City - Surrey, BC Public Art Concept Proposal - Opportunity B

City Cut Greens - Public Art Proposal, Opportunity B, Century City, Surrey, BC The artwork, City Cut Greens, is inspired by organic shapes found in nature and in particular, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, Ikebana. There is something visually arresting about the appearance of Ikebana, where natural forms are shaped and reshaped in combination with human touch through perception. It is this process of looking and seeing when directed by movement, form and context that is at the core of my design for the atrium space in the Century City complex.

Working in parallel with the given thematic of agricultural urbanism of the original building design, my goal is to enliven both the viewer’s perception of the physical space as they transition through it and to construct a visually dynamic theatre of light evocative of greenhouse architecture. The qualities of visual discovery stimulated by a person’s movement in proximity to the artwork will carry powerful contrasts between the built rational grid of the architecture and organic shapes found in nature. City Cut Greens will be constructed of custom shaped neon tubes to form one large suspended nest-like shape of complex interwoven lyrical curves.

The neon tube colour transmission will intermingle, bounce and reflect off of the glass and surrounding surfaces of the building’s space in a rich visually expanding atmospheric aura.

Whether viewed from the exterior or interior, City Cut Greens will activate our senses of urban culture while gently reminding us of our connection to the phenomena of nature.

Model, City Cut Greens, 2021

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History and context of the project Agricultural urbanism as a concept has a rich and powerful set of associations that it carries with it — almost utopian in scope. It also holds a set of important practical present/future goals including how we work and live in healthy concert with our expanding urban contexts. And, along with this, such values of how we recognize, appreciate and sustain food production and our natural environment. For me as a practicing artist these values can be best exemplified through the use of imaginative, experiential, perceptual qualities of an artwork which can further stimulate in the viewer a sense of wonder and deeper thought on this topic. In City Cut Greens symbolic representation, colour and light are my chosen tools of expression.

I have been working with the electronic properties of colour and light since the mid-90s. I have a long commitment to using neon for its penetrating light reach, with wavelength properties that easily fill physical space in relationship to architecture.

Neon has a long history of usage in city signage for its commercial informational transmission. This history is now recognized for its important aesthetic and almost romantic linage with earlier urbanism ideals of the 30s through to the 50s. My choice of its usage recognizes this earlier history while drawing upon its ability as an older technology that has great long-operating power efficiencies on top of its unparalleled quality of subtle rich colour – unlike LEDs.

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