Artist: Blue McRight
Project Title: Twist and Sprout
Date Completed: 2007
Commissioned by: City of San Diego Public Art Program
Project Location: North University Community Branch Library and
Nobel Park Recreation Center, San Diego, California

Intellectual expansion and physical development were significant factors in establishing a meaningful sense of place here. The two main buildings, library and recreation center, can be seen as symbolizing the mind and the body respectively. Their juxtaposition embodies their connection; thus, the Nobel complex represents the whole person.

Visiting the site for the first time, I noticed a mature acacia tree amidst the chaparral. The elegant shapes of its elongated leaves and the gracefully bending stems of the site’s wild grasses inspired my artwork design. However, surrounding this chaparral zone is extensive development. “Bio” (the natural environment) literally and metaphorically encountered “tech”(the built environment), resulting in a new and hybrid form.

I created an artwork for the exterior of each building: Twist and Sprout. Each artwork is a focal point at the buildings’ entries. Through related forms and content viewers are able to visually and conceptually link the artworks to each other and to their locations.

At the Library, Sprout, a large-scale light sculpture, is sited on a circular plinth near the main entrance. Composed of two stainless steel forms reminiscent of leaves or pods balanced by a stainless steel stem, Sprout is a plant/machine hybrid. Illuminated from within, the work has distinct day and night aspects. At dusk, light shines through cut out letters – T’s, A’s, C’s, and G’s – the “alphabet” of DNA. This “alphabet” is a metaphor for alphabets used in the Library’s collections. Pairings of the nucleotides Thymine, Adenine, Cytosine, and Guanine produce DNA’s elegant double helix structure, and is the basis for the “Genomic Library”. The double helix structure symbolizes the universal origin and connection of all life, and references the importance of the biotech industry to nearby UC San Diego as well as the University City community.

Twist extends the theme of bio/tech at the Recreation Center, integrating the classic double helix pattern of DNA strands into the colored concrete paving delineating the main entrance by using circular brass survey markers set into the paving. Each marker is engraved with the T’s, A’s, C’s, and G’s of the DNA “alphabet”; here, they can be seen metaphorically as genetic markers, part of the physicality of our bodies.