CREK
Light Installation
Austin, Texas
2016
DEEP CURIOSITY is a temporary light-art installation that was a collaboration between the East Side Collective (co-founded by Tim Derrington) and Drophouse Design. At this particular site—between 5th and 6th Streets—along Waller Creek, stained concrete walls drop down to a soupy pool. Deep Curiosity offers an alternative to the void—a view to the enlivened, complete Waller Creek experience that we know is imminent. A partially submerged, larger-than-life circular form finds its delicate balance in the murky water like an object from the future civilization. The scale of this inwardly glowing round form lifts the viewers’ eyes and imagination up and around. With no beginning and no end, the ring offers a glimpse of something whole and total, through which the full spatial possibility of this place is imagined. The depth of the dark abyss will be called to attention as well, as the massive ring is half submerged, allowing reality and illusion to coalesce and complete an object whose form and scale exist to encourage delight and epiphany with the use of curved steel and LED lighting. The object offers viewers a careful array of elements balanced precariously yet precisely in its place on Waller Creek, suggesting a future site where perfection is possible.
**SPECIAL THANKS** to these player for making this possible: Waller Creek Conservancy, Waxwing Design, Drophouse Design, W2 MacFab, JM Structural Engineering, Luminaire Coffee, American Constructors, HAAS Home Technology, Hoar Construction / Tala Matchett, EEA Consulting Engineers, ERT Lighting, DCI Engineers, Kimley-Horn, Easy Tiger, & Phil Bogdanovich.
Photography - Peter Molick Photography, James Allen, David Brendan Hall, Leonid Furmansky, Tim Derrington, & Taylor Perry
Jury comments for the 2018 AIA Austin Award of Merit.
