LIGHT PASSAGE
Laura Haddad & Tom Drugan
PROJECT PROFILE:
Artist: Laura Haddad & Tom Drugan
Title: Light Passage
Materials: stainless steel, clear acrylic prisms, frosted acrylic light lenses, LED lighting system
Fabrication + Installation: Demiurge
Engineering: Yetiweurks
Location: Cary Downtown Park, Cary NC
Artists Statement
Light Passage is a public artwork set within Downtown Cary Park’s tree canopy. Wrapping around the high point of an elevated skywalk and overlooking a circular stormwater pond, the sculpture has an iconic presence from afar and is an immersive experience from within. Light Passage is structured by four large rings bolted to the skywalk’s girders. The spacing between the rings becomes progressively wider approaching the skywalk’s overlook. A spinning matrix of pipes inspired by tree branches and bird nests fills the spaces between the rings, building to become densest at the overlook where a flourish of prisms highlights the matrix culmination, casting spectrums of color onto the sculpture and skywalk.
While Light Passage reflects and refracts sunlight during the day, it projects electric light at night. The interior faces of the rings are programmable light channels, with the artwork’s dynamic lighting sequences and colors inspired by natural elements and phenomena. Day and night reflections into the stormwater pond expand and enhance optical perception of the artwork, with a play of gently moving water interacting with reflected imagery to create a myriad of effects merging light, movement, structure, and space.
Light Passage was commissioned by the Town of Cary, fabricated and installed by Demiurge, and engineered by Yetiweurks.
About the Artists:
Laura Haddad and Tom Drugan’s collaboration as an artist team began in 2001 and has fostered a wide range of innovative site-specific public art commissions and plans. Their Seattle-based studio, Haddad|Drugan LLC, operates at intersections of art, architecture, landscape, and theater, and includes collaborators adept at detail design, computer modeling and drafting, physical modeling, and graphics.
Haddad|Drugan specializes in creating conceptually driven site-specific art that is often integrated into large-scale infrastructure projects. Past and current work includes art for stormwater utilities, transportation projects, architectural facades, industrial artifacts, museums, libraries, urban plazas and parks. Their award-winning work has been published in Sculpture, Architectural Record, Landscape Architecture, Eco-Structure, Landscape Journal, Land Forum, and other publications.
Laura Haddad has a Master’s degree in landscape architecture from University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor’s degree in history from Bowdoin College. Her background also includes jewelry and stage set design. She has recently served as a member of the Seattle Design Commission and Seattle Public Art Advisory Committee.
Tom Drugan received a Master’s degree in landscape architecture from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Colorado. His background includes sustainable building, filmmaking, and lighting installations.
Haddad and Drugan have taught at the Rhode Island School of Design and University of Washington and lectured in venues across the country. Their training in architecture and landscape architecture helps them to successfully translate art concepts to large scales, respond to contextual conditions, and integrate environmental processes into work that performs aesthetically, functionally, and ecologically.