A new pedestrian bridge connects a Palo Alto neighborhood with a badlands park. The bridge is huge and the art budget was small, so I decided to concentrate all the art on a balcony on the bridge, overlooking the baylands. I wanted to create a space for people to stop and rest, that reflected the feeling of being down in the marsh, surrounded by grasses, ripples, stones, birds, and insects. The centerpiece of the site are three cast-aluminum sculptures that can be used as seating for a short rest. Organic-shaped and featuring textures from the grassland, the smooth surfaces beg to be touched. Part water-smoothed stone, part hand-polished old tableware, they both full of familiar references, and also very strange. The sculptures are surrounded by a cut-steel fence that features 5-feet-tall silhouettes of the bayland grasses, giving visitors the feeling of being nestled down in the marsh.

Date: 2023
Commissioning Agency: Palo Alto Public Art
Cast aluminum with stainless steel railing (not shown)
Fabricator: Bollinger Atelier
Three sculptures, Approx. 30” x 30” x 32” each