Archives: Projects

In historical paintings of religious subjects, artists traditionally represented the spiritual status of gods, kings, and saints by surrounding the body of these holy figures with a luminous formation suggestive of radiating shafts of light. Variously referred to as the aureole, nimbus, or glory, notions of this motif have been in the vernacular since before Christianity and continue to have meaning in cultures throughout the world.

At the intersection of La Brea Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, we celebrated a typical glass corner of a six-story apartment building with our own Glory. At over five stories high it is visible from a distance of several blocks. Rather than celebrating a holy personage, our gleaming frame highlights the absence of a religious icon and calls into question the status of a prosaic element in the urban landscape.  By inviting the viewer to fill in the blank, we ask what she sees as sacred in her daily commute through Los Angeles, a place that hosts a spectrum of outlooks on spirituality and where celebrity confers a status near that of holiness.

On close inspection, Corner Glory suggests the teeth of a comb or long eyelashes jutting out from the building. The combination of mirror polished stainless steel and spiky shapes blurs the distinction between surface and background to give the impression of an immaterial presence emanating from the corner.  As the viewer moves along the boulevards, the reflection of moving cars and changing lighting conditions transform the appearance of Corner Glory into effervescent light.

The owners of the Huxley Apartments at Fountain and La Brea commissioned this artwork for a new courtyard adjacent to the sidewalk on La Brea Avenue. Our first impulse was to suspend a structure over the courtyard that was self-referential, of a dramatically different language than the Huxley building itself.  Stud Wall takes cues from a pair of sources, our previous work entitled Cradle in Santa Monica and leather biker jackets, which owners customize with assortments of studs, spikes and other ornaments.

These spiky jackets have served as emblems of cool masculinity and personal liberty since the ‘50’s. Greaser, motorcyclist, gay and music subcultures (punks, goths, metalheads, rivetheads), have worn black leather for protective and often fashionable reasons, occasionally with the intention to create an intimidating appearance.  Each of these subcultures has been associated with West Hollywood at one time or another.

We studied the details of several jackets, in particular the arrangement of studs relative to leather panels of the garments themselves.  While many of the patterns followed the contours of the panels they inhabited, we were more drawn to those that operated independent of the substrate.  These patterns are not relegated to the boundary of the leather panels therefore becoming a kind of layer, superimposed over the jacket.

We added such a layer of studs to crumpled surface of the installation, imbuing a unique geometry over that of the ¼” stainless steel plates into which they are inserted.  The studs also serve a structural purpose – by providing extra weight to the structure. Contemporary design abhors weight. It is customary for designers to view lightness as an ideal quality.  That this project was a kind of hovering surface, subject to uplift caused by wind loads, demanded that it be as heavy as possible. So, we added the studs to increase its weight to nearly 4000 pounds.

As we developed the design, and as the engineers asked that more and more weight be added, the stud layer took on an increasingly aggressive look. The result, Stud Wall, seemed like it might hurt someone were they to come to close. The Huxley wears it well.

Confluence Park is an initiative of the San Antonio River Foundation to transform a former industrial laydown yard into an outdoor learning center. With environmental education as an overarching theme, the design will incorporate creative learning opportunities into virtually every aspect of the park. To this end, the park is designed as one large organism, with various interdependent areas intricately linked through resource sharing and circulation systems. These thoughtfully designed systems, such as a water collection and redistribution system, reduce the park’s dependence on the local area’s natural resources as well as educate the public about natural ecological processes and sustainable practices.

Created for the Exhibition Almost Anything Goes: Architecture and Inclusivity at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara

On view: January 5 – March 16, 2014

Wall Text:

The boundaries between cultural disciplines are not easy to cross. A guy who studies sculpture and goes on to create furniture will probably never see his work in the MoMA design collection. An architect who refers to her installations as “art” will undoubtedly provoke derision from the ranks within the fine arts academy.

In determining a title for this installation, one reason Radiant came to mind is because the figures illuminate the space within which they are situated. Body seemed appropriate because we explored the human figure; and Glob because we developed a process for producing the work in paper pulp – formless oatmeal-like goo commonly used to make protective packaging for consumer products.

Each of the three figures in the Radiant Body Globs installation—Figure Head, Come to Mama, and Grandpa Lost his Cane—can be displayed as part of the installation or individually as a sculpture or lamp.
Principals in Charge: Gaston Nogues, Benjamin Ball

Project Manager: Mora Nabi

Project Team: Mora Nabi, Christine Forster-Jones, Aaron Goldman

Principals and Designers in Charge: Gaston Nogues and Benjamin Ball

Project Manager: Daniel Berlin

Project Team: Andy Fastman, James Jones, Christine Forster-Jones, Allison Myers, Raphael Moguel, Bhumi Patel, Emma Helgerson, Marissa Ritchen, Allison Porterfield, Richy Garcia, Caroline Duncan

Catenary stainless steel ball chains descent dramatically from a suspended elliptical ring beam and then return skyward on a new path forming two shells of pattern and color. We produced a translucent three-dimensional painting, fabricated with a custom digital cutting machine. Depending on the viewer’s vantage point, the 1141 multi-colored chains of Euphony may appear as a hard-edged geometric form or blur to a vapor-like visual composition.

Materials: stainless steel ball chain, steel tube, baked enamel finish

Total weight of the artwork (2,100 lbs. ) and ring beam (1,400 lbs.) is 3,500 lbs.

Euphony amplifies aesthetics of light, reflection and color creating a visual spectacle and physical sensation in a public space. 25 miles of stainless steel chain are attached to a 30’ x 8’  steel ring beam that is suspended 3’ from ceiling. Euphony hangs 106’ and 10’ 11” above first level floor.
Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues

Project Manager: James Jones

Project Team: Caroline Duncan, Richy Garcia, Emma Helgerson, Christine-Forster Jones, Allison Myers, Mora Nabi, Adam Parkhurst, Bhumi Patel, Allison Porterfield, Marissa Ritchen

Custom Software Design: www.sparcestudio.com

Structural Engineer: Buro Happold, Los Angeles. Frank Reppi lead engineer.

Using standard sheets of paper as our raw material, we made a pulp slurry in a blender. We then added colorant to the slurry to develop a palette. The colored pulp was molded into face-like forms using a pre-cut platen shaped like a head. The shapes were ironed to dry. The result might be understood as a crazy mask that the kids (and kids at heart) took home.

From the Hammer’s Event Text:

On May 5th, 2013 the Hammer Museum hosted its fourth annual K.A.M.P. (Kids’ Art Museum Project), an event imagined by artists for children of all ages. Painters, sculptors, architects, and creative types of all kinds lead inventive hands-on workshops in the carefree atmosphere of the Hammer Museum courtyard. All K.A.M.P. proceeds support the Museum¹s growing Hammer Kids public programming.

Unlike other family events, K.A.M.P. provided extraordinary access and experiences for kids and their families with renowned Los Angeles artists, many of whom have been the subject of exhibitions at the Hammer Museum or are represented in the Hammer Contemporary Art Collection. This year’s participating artists were: Edgar Arceneaux, Benjamin Ball & Gaston Nogues, Cayetano Ferrer, Mark Hagen, Pearl Hsiung, Vishal Jugdeo, Glenn Kaino, T. Kelly Mason, Rita McBride & Glen Rubsamen, Ruben Ochoa, Monique Prieto & Michael Webster, Retna, Fatima Robinson, Ry Rocklen, Anila Rubiku, Brian Sharp, Adam Silverman, John Sonsini, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Oscar Tuazon.    

K.A.M.P. also celebrated reading with Story Time in the Permanent Collection galleries. Celebrity guests engaged families as they read from their favorite children’s books and share exciting stories. Book readings for this year were presented by Dianna Agron, James Van Der Beek, Julie Bowen, and Jodie Foster. K.A.M.P. is a chance for the Hammer’s cultural patrons to share their love of contemporary art with their children.

For the Music Legs Glob Lamp we adapted materials and processes commonly used in the mass production of packaging to yield a series of lamps. Each lamp is a unique sculptural object. Paper pulp forms an integrated structure and skin, such that the only non-biodegradable components are the bulb housing and cord. A variant of our earlier Glob Lamp 01, which resembles the iconic head of a famous cartoon mouse or an abstraction of male or female anatomy, this series has a wider range of potential shapes. As with the subjective interpretation of clouds, the viewer can read different meanings in the forms of each lamp. Because of the unique fabrication process, no single lamp can be exactly reproduced.

Waterline resembles a thickened atmosphere of ghostly waves within the double high entryway of Building 204. It is neither solid nor emptiness but has qualities of both. Seventeen thousand segments of painted stainless steel ball chain, totaling over 10 miles in length make up this work. By integrating digital computation with hand production techniques, Ball-Nogues meticulously combined the segments to form an array of “catenaries” that span the ceiling. In mathematics, a catenary is the shape of a curve formed by a chain hanging between two points.

Composed of seven colors, the chains make an intricate system of overlapping curves. The result suggests a three-dimensional abstract painting that looks differently depending on one’s vantage point. From one angle, the viewer sees hard-edged geometric shapes in distinct color; from another angle, she sees the same colors blurred to make a vapor-like composition.

In naval engineering, the term “waterline” refers to the contour made by the hull of a ship meeting water. This Ball-Nogues installation includes a field of magenta color that is parallel to the ground plane catenaries. Analogous to a waterline, this feature becomes reference for gauging the discrepancies between the “theoretical” models generated within the computer and the physical reality of the installation constructed from the data output by the computer.

Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues

Project Management: Benjamin Jenett

Project Team: James Jones, Allison Porterfield, Anirudh Dhawan, Sonali Patel, Melissah Bridge, Edwin Cho, Julian Rui Hwang, H Clark, Mora Nabi, R.J. Tripodi

Structural Engineering Consultants: Buro Happold, Los Angeles.

Custom Software Design: www.sparcestudio.com