As the artist behind Alliance Partners’ monumental outdoor public art commission at Vanguard Strata, I sought to pay tribute to the City of Richmond’s natural forests. This project, spanning from 2020 to 2024, includes a glazing design transforming the four-storey façades of two commercial buildings and two photo-based murals for the enclosure gates.
At the heart of the design are large-scale depictions of native bog trees, inspired by the adjacent Richmond Nature Park. I meticulously photographed the park’s trees and hand-drew the compositions to create vectorized graphics that span across all four façades, embodying the changing seasons. This artwork not only reconnects the site with its natural heritage but also serves a practical purpose—acting as visual markers to prevent bird strikes on the glass surfaces. Throughout the day, the natural sunlight casts moving shadows of the forest deep into the buildings’ interiors—an interactive element I designed to replicate the play of light one experiences while immersed in nature.
A thoughtful theme of ‘levels’ is woven throughout the artwork. The flora illustrated on each building correlates with the corresponding stratum of the forest, aligning the height of the installation with the architecture to add another layer of cohesion to the project. In 2023, we celebrated the completion of 59 windows on Building A, capturing the essence of autumn and winter, and 49 windows on Building B, reflecting spring and summer.
The gate murals are intricate collages of digitized cyanotype prints, showcasing a diverse array of flora from the Richmond Nature Park. The creation of these murals was a several months-long, intensive process that began with working in collaboration with the park’s biologist. Guided by their expertise, I sensitively foraged a variety of flora species, then carefully pressed and preserved them. Over 200 cyanotypes were hand-created from the collected specimens, and 150 were scanned to render digital files. These files were then layered into elaborate collages, creating visual depth and an immersive quality. Up close, one can see layer upon layer of the intricate details of local flora specimens, some appearing almost translucent. The overall effect offers another ethereal experience at the site, akin to that of the native bog trees featured across the glazing on the south facades.
My intent for the entire project, encompassing both the Gates and Façade Glazing, is to honor the land as it once was by bringing qualities of the native ecosystem back to the industrialized site through visual art.
