Parallel Perpendicular, the urban artwork by artist Phillip K. Smith III, is finally getting a dedication by the city of West Hollywood after delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event will take place on Wednesday, November 2, 2022 at 5:30 p.m. at West Hollywood Park, adjacent to N. Robertson Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue.
Parallel Perpendicular is a permanent public artwork organized by the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division and commissioned in tandem with the City’s Aquatic and Recreation Center. The City unveiled the sculpture in February 2022 but delayed the dedication event until Los Angeles County entered the a low community transmission level for COVID-19.
The art installation is comprised of five freestanding mirrored volumes composed of parallel and perpendicular planes that hover above a 40-foot diameter circle of green landscaping. Parallel Perpendicular is meant to be an entirely interactive piece. By day, these forms reflect the park visitors and environment as well as the surrounding West Hollywood views. By night, the mirrored surfaces illuminate to become pure fields of color that slowly move through a custom color choreography. These colors reflect off each other, merging upon colors creating new spaces of color.
The scale of Parallel Perpendicular, 40’ diameter x 11’3” high, is in direct response to the more intimate atmosphere of the Robertson Gardens section of West Hollywood Park. This beautifully situated area serves as a park entry and connector to the N. Robertson Boulevard/Santa Monica Boulevard retail and neighborhood zones. Parallel Perpendicular is the focus of this section of West Hollywood Park to draw people in both during the day and in the evening. Photos of Parallel Perpendicular are available on the City’s official Flickr account.
Parallel Perpendicular artwork by Phillip K. Smith III is finally getting a dedication by @WeHoCity on Wednesday, November 2, 2022 at 5:30 p.m. at West Hollywood Park,- https://t.co/68LK5uJ1CQ #wehotimes #wehocity #weho #wehoarts #publicart @WeHoArts pic.twitter.com/yYJdbDkC8m
— WEHO TIMES (@WEHO_TIMES) October 20, 2022
Artist Phillip K. Smith III received his Bachelor of Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. From his Palm Desert, CA-based studio, he continues to push the boundaries and confront the ideas of modernist design. Drawing inspiration from the cold rigidity of the Bauhaus movement, the reductive geometries of minimalism, and the optic sensation of California’s Light and Space movement, Smith III attempts to resolve the complex challenge of finding a natural state of life and spirit within these ideological aesthetic constrictions. The results are deceptively simple and compelling objects that seem to breathe and move as you observe and interact with them.
Featured in hundreds of online and print publications, Phillip K. Smith III is known for creating large-scaled temporary installation such as Lucid Stead in Joshua Tree, Reflection Field and Portals at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, ¼ Mile Arc in Laguna Beach, and The Circle of Land and Sky at the inaugural 2017 Desert X exhibition. His public artworks can be viewed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Kansas City, Nashville, Oklahoma City and beyond. The artist’s work is also included in the forthcoming exhibition and catalog Unsettled organized by the Nevada Museum of Art and artist Ed Ruscha.
Parallel Perpendicular is a permanent public artwork organized by the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division. The Urban Art Program, established in 1987, is the City’s permanent art program that provides a mechanism to integrate free and accessible art into the urban fabric of the City. Most new developments in the city require a developer to contribute 1% of the project value to an on-site artwork or payment of an in-lieu fee to the West Hollywood Public Art and Beautification Fund. For more information about City of West Hollywood arts programming, please visit www.weho.org/arts.
The City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division delivers a broad array of arts programs including Art on the Outside (temporary public art), Arts Grants, City Poet Laureate, Free Theatre in the Parks, Human Rights Speaker Series, Library Exhibits, Summer Sounds + Winter Sounds, Urban Art (permanent public art), WeHo Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival, and WeHo Reads. For more information about City of West Hollywood arts programming, please visit www.weho.org/arts.
Half a millions dollars for that???? They could have given $1000 to 500 seniors with that money!
A very expensive toilet bowl for the homeless in West Hollywood California. .
I hope the city replaces the newly planted landscaping that died underneath the art installation in time for dedication.
The dead plants go beautifully with the dead lawn surrounding it.