Public Service Private Steps by Alan Storey

In this piece Storey reveals the inner workings of the building by mimicing the activity of the elevators. In a structure in front of the building, rectangular boxes travel up and down the poles and an LED screen reveals the footprints of the people inside the building as they travel up and down between floors.

Artist Statement:
"From the ground up the work is sited upon the oval of reclaimed 'Customs House' black granite on the corner of Pender and Burrard. The granite shall be set in an east/west linear pattern, except for an inner oval directly under the artwork that will be cut and set in a specific pattern corresponding to the delineation of the elements of the piece. The structure of the artwork is a series of 10"x10"x60' steel columns that are arranged in such a way as to delineate a scaled down relationship to the 5 elevator shafts in the core of the building. The 5 elevator cars are represented in their respective positions on the columns. An interface with the actual elevator system in the building will cause the artwork cars to glide up and down the columns in exact co-relation to the real cars, ie, if only elevator #2 is used, and it is taken to the 16th floor, the artwork will respond accordingly, while the remaining cars stay idle. Next, in each car in the building, placed under the pumpkin coloured carpet, will be a multi-contact membrane switch that will pick up the various passengers' foot prints as they stand or walk in the car, and transmit them out to an LED matrix screen on the underside of each corresponding artwork car. So, from a standing position on the plaza, an observer would be able to look up and see the movement and use of the inner workings of the building represented in a formal yet abstracted public realm." A.Storey, December 2001

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• TL070227
• Public
• Service
• Private
• Steps
• 1080