City Of West Hollywood: City Unveils ‘Parallel Perpendicular' Public Artwork By Phillip K. Smith III At West Hollywood Park

Press release from the City of West Hollywood:

February 03, 2022 9:25 AM

The City of West Hollywood announces a new permanent addition to the City’s public art program, the sculpture Parallel Perpendicular by artist Phillip K. Smith III, sited in the Robertson Gardens area of West Hollywood Park, located adjacent to N. Robertson Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue.

The City of West Hollywood has reopened a large portion of the park-site at West Hollywood Park, which was previously closed for completion of the West Hollywood Park Phase II Master Plan Implementation Project. Amenities in this newly opened section of the park include a new picnic area adjacent to an expanded turf area for passive recreation activities.

Parallel Perpendicular by artist Phillip K. Smith III is comprised of five freestanding mirrored volumes composed of parallel and perpendicular planes 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 become pure fields of color that slowly move through the color spectrum. These colors reflect off each other, merging upon colors, creating new spaces of color, projection, and reflection.

The scale of Parallel Perpendicular 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 Robertson and 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.

The artwork is built from a stainless-steel internal framework that is wrapped with a custom glass lay-up of two-way mirror and clear mirror lay-up with an internal safety lamination. The five mirrored volumes have dimensions that range from 4 feet long x 8 feet high x 1.5 feet deep to the largest volume that measures 9.5 feet long x 9.5 feet high x 5.5 feet deep.

LED lighting at the interior of the framework provides an even glow across the various surfaces while simple hardware components control the color choreography and power supply for the lighting. All five of the volumes hover on a 12-inch diameter brushed stainless steel tube (internally bolted directly to the framework) that provides both structural support and connectivity for wiring.

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 an Urban Art project organized by the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division. The Urban Art Program, established in 1987, 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, One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival, Summer Sounds + Winter Sounds, Urban Art (permanent public art), and WeHo Reads.

For more information about Parallel Perpendicular, please contact the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Manager, Rebecca Ehemann at (323) 848-6846 or at rehemann@weho.org. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.

The City of West Hollywood remains in a declared local emergency in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. West Hollywood City Hall is open for in-person transactions by appointment. Visitors to City Hall and City facilities are required to adhere to vaccine verification requirements. Click here for details. To make an appointment, visit www.weho.org/appointments. City Hall services remain accessible by phone at (323) 848-6400 and via the City’s website at www.weho.org. City of West Hollywood coronavirus information is available at www.weho.org/coronavirus.

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For reporters and members of the media seeking additional information about the City of West Hollywood, please contact the City of West Hollywood’s Public Information Officer, Sheri A. Lunn, at (323) 848-6391 or slunn@weho.org.

This press release was produced by the City of West Hollywood. The views expressed here are the author’s own.