Home | Experience the Arts | Public Art Directory | Triangular Bridge Over Water

Public Art

Triangular Bridge Over Water

By Dan Graham
Category: Miscellaneous

About

Depending on the time of day and weather conditions, the glass inTriangular Bridge Over Water can function as either a window or a wall. It reflects the interior or exterior space, whichever is brighter, allowing the visitor either to see through it or to see a reflection of the surrounding landscape.

Triangular Bridge Over Water functions both as a primer for historical covered bridge construction and as a conceptual membrane for refracting space and time. Like a futuristic version ofBridges of Madison County as if designed by Albert Einstein, the two-way mirror panels attached to a steel truss reflect and absorb the exterior public space. This arrangement counter-intuitively creates an interior private experience where the self, bridge and woods are simultaneously reflected. The fixed dimensions of the structure are warped by the speed of the viewer who crosses the bridge; what we see is continually altered by the act of seeing. By landing this space-age architectural form in a leafy bower, Graham illustrates a theory of perception by unifying the relationship between the designed elements of his sculpture and the whole of a visual experience. Using a grid pattern with encased cinematic views, this work enhances the artificial nature of the Arcadian landscape.

Courtesy of Laumeier Sculpture Park.


About the artist: