Fountain Mix (2002),
Woodruff Park
Atlanta, GA
“Fountain Mix” both transformed its outdoor, monumental site and was transformed by it. The sober memorial fountain became a ziggurat of color in the midst of a low-key urban landscape. The forceful horizontal sweep of the brushstrokes in the composition provided a lively contrast to the verticality of the buildings around it and lent a sense of movement and dynamism to the fountain itself. Just as the image brought new life to the fountain, the fountain lent something of its physicality to the installation in the vertical folds that resulted when the material was draped over the fountain and the sprays of water that coursed down the sides of the image into the pool below. This play of water and refracted light animated the colors in the composition. Even though it was not transparent, this installation was responsive to environmental change: at dusk, the colors deepened and the installation acquired a burnished glow.
Because the fountain is situated at an intersection, viewers could walk around it on two sides, following the path of the sidewalk. At its premier, the installation was accompanied by a sound piece commissioned from the Italian composer Giuseppe Gavazza. The sound emanated from a series of speakers that followed the curve of the street; each speaker emitted different sounds. By encouraging the viewer to walk around the installation, to see it and hear it from a number of vantage points, this sequential distribution of sound in space emphasized the way that moving around the piece was an experience that unfolded temporally as well as spatially.
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