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Commissioned for a private collection in Santa Monica, CA, the artwork is sited on a 42-degree slope coated in lush landscape and topped with 60’ tall eucalyptus trees, defining a 110’ tall wall of green on the northeast side of the client’s historic and sprawling Ray Kappe home and property. Flanked by an early James Turrell Skyspace and a 40’ tall Nancy Rubins, the proposed site itself holds ingrained importance when visiting the property.
Responding to the scale of the site, Santa Monica Linear is a 30’ long singular, horizontal, monolithic gesture that inserts a line of reflected sky and treetops into the vertical plane of lush green landscape. With the reflective surface elevated, the piece reflects the lit sky miles to the South, even when the hillside is in the shade of the late afternoon. The adjacency of the Pacific Ocean creates conditions that range from fast-moving fog to a perfect partly cloudy sky to pure blue. All of these changing reflected conditions become part of Santa Monica Linear. At sunset, the reflection of the glowing sky and on-shore moving clouds merges with floating, shifting gradients of light across the surface of the work. Reds emanate from the center and dissipate into reflection. A deep royal blue blends to a yellow across the entire 30’ long face. Hazy purple gradients anchor the left and right, blending to the blackness of the night sky at the center. The pace of the color choreography inspires stillness. Like watching a sunset, presence and focus are the simple requirements in order to witness awe-inspiring change. Just as each day’s sky is entirely unique, so is Santa Monica Linear.
