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FREEZE ANCHORAGE
FREEZE ANCHORAGE
Anchorage, AK, United States
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FREEZE ANCHORAGE
Anchorage, AK, United States
FREEZE ANCHORAGE DESIGN CONCEPT:We wanted to create a beautiful
minimalist linear sculpture in a white field of snow, aligned to the sun at a
specific moment in time. We decided on a narrow table of great length, which
would contain oil and water on its surface.
We were interested in the metaphors it evoked and the questions it
posed. What happens to our perception
when confronted by a white field traversed by a single black line? The white field elevated to table height
filled with black oil reflecting the Northern sky. Oil held by frozen water, together, yet apart, forming an
ever-changing mirror image. Ancient
life compressed floating atop a container of frozen water, a magic emulsion
mixed with light to glow in the colors of the rainbow. Oil is compressed and liquefied life, the
fossilized remains of plants and animals of millions of years ago. By creating a vessel of frozen water from
the present to carry a precious liquid created millions of years ago, the
black-ice table reveals another perceptual paradox: We are attracted by water,
yet cannot access it because of its frozen state, we are rejected by black oil,
but taken by the beauty of the colors it forms when mixed with water and light.
As a minimalist, black, linear sculpture
dissecting the white, snow-covered site, the 99 foot long table is oriented to
reflect the precise direction of the sun on “one minute past noon, January 3,
2009, the exact moment of the 50- year anniversary of the State of Alaska.
People would gather around the table, yet
there are no seats, instead of social interaction over food, it is oil and
water that are changing but not mixing, leaving the viewer with questions and
frictions, yet grounded in time and space.
The only moving part of the installation
is the liquid oil carried by the table. It becomes the main protagonist and
agitator of constant change of its surface appearance within the frozen world
of the Alaskan winter. It comes alive
and represents its true nature: compressed life.
PROCESS:
Christoph Kapeller and Lita Albuquerque
teamed up with Buro Happold, Los Angeles in order to get their expertise in the
material and structural properties of ice.
Together, it was decided to proceed on the “Oil and Water” concept.
After the initial concept renderings, and after we decided that the table base
be made from compacted snow and the top from ice frozen in formwork Buro
Happold produced a set of working drawings for the forms to be sent to
Anchorage prior to the event.
Simultaneously we started testing different oil mixtures for appearance
and reflectivity. After one of these
meetings, the team was told that not to use crude oil as initially envisaged
because of environmental concerns. Our
second proposal, to use molasses as an oil look-alike was equally rejected, and
finally, we decided on a mixture of methylcellulose, water, food coloring and
ethanol.
Upon our arrived in Alaska, the unusually
low temperature immediately overwhelmed us.
Luckily, we arrived at the site early and were helped by the great crew
of Davis Constructors, many volunteers and specifically by Mike Kelly without
whose help the project would not have been completed on time.
After placing the formwork for the base,
we piled snow into it and compacted it manually. The extreme cold at night helped further freeze the snow to its
required consistency. Once, the base
was completed, we placed the plywood mold for the tabletop and tray and
inserted and sealed a membrane to prevent leakage. We decided to pour the water in layers of less than 2 inches each
in order to prevent large deformations.
As we reached the top of the tray, we reduced the amount of water for
each fill and found that the thinner the fill, the better the resulting surface. Finally, we spent a day of chiseling,
surface repair and polishing. The
frozen table was completed, it was perfectly leveled, the ice had an almost
transparent quality, looked generally pristine and the table was exactly
oriented towards the sun at the calculated hour.
When we then proceeded to fill the table
with our prepared mixture on the night before the opening, we found that the
mixture produced cracks and started to leak through the walls of the frozen
tray. We stopped the leaks, but after we
returned next morning, we found that in addition to leaking, the ethanol
mixture had frozen to a solid black mass of ice.
RESULT:
Somehow the result was
surprising, not what we had planned.
The super-cold temperatures made the 50 percent ethanol mixture freeze,
and freeze in unexpected ways. Small
ice blossoms turned up in different colors and shapes while the liquid was in a
semi-frozen state and developed into a series of beautiful crystals. Pieces of ice were frozen into the liquid,
like icebergs in a sea of black and blue.
The ephemeral character of the final installation, the black line in the
white snow, the colors and formations of the traces of the leaks, the ice
crystals at the liquid’s surface, all of that reminded us that, while careful
planning and testing is important, in the end, physics and chemistry take
charge and the table expresses what the material wants to be:
Oil and water don’t mix.
minimalist linear sculpture in a white field of snow, aligned to the sun at a
specific moment in time. We decided on a narrow table of great length, which
would contain oil and water on its surface.
We were interested in the metaphors it evoked and the questions it
posed. What happens to our perception
when confronted by a white field traversed by a single black line? The white field elevated to table height
filled with black oil reflecting the Northern sky. Oil held by frozen water, together, yet apart, forming an
ever-changing mirror image. Ancient
life compressed floating atop a container of frozen water, a magic emulsion
mixed with light to glow in the colors of the rainbow. Oil is compressed and liquefied life, the
fossilized remains of plants and animals of millions of years ago. By creating a vessel of frozen water from
the present to carry a precious liquid created millions of years ago, the
black-ice table reveals another perceptual paradox: We are attracted by water,
yet cannot access it because of its frozen state, we are rejected by black oil,
but taken by the beauty of the colors it forms when mixed with water and light.
As a minimalist, black, linear sculpture
dissecting the white, snow-covered site, the 99 foot long table is oriented to
reflect the precise direction of the sun on “one minute past noon, January 3,
2009, the exact moment of the 50- year anniversary of the State of Alaska.
People would gather around the table, yet
there are no seats, instead of social interaction over food, it is oil and
water that are changing but not mixing, leaving the viewer with questions and
frictions, yet grounded in time and space.
The only moving part of the installation
is the liquid oil carried by the table. It becomes the main protagonist and
agitator of constant change of its surface appearance within the frozen world
of the Alaskan winter. It comes alive
and represents its true nature: compressed life.
PROCESS:
Christoph Kapeller and Lita Albuquerque
teamed up with Buro Happold, Los Angeles in order to get their expertise in the
material and structural properties of ice.
Together, it was decided to proceed on the “Oil and Water” concept.
After the initial concept renderings, and after we decided that the table base
be made from compacted snow and the top from ice frozen in formwork Buro
Happold produced a set of working drawings for the forms to be sent to
Anchorage prior to the event.
Simultaneously we started testing different oil mixtures for appearance
and reflectivity. After one of these
meetings, the team was told that not to use crude oil as initially envisaged
because of environmental concerns. Our
second proposal, to use molasses as an oil look-alike was equally rejected, and
finally, we decided on a mixture of methylcellulose, water, food coloring and
ethanol.
Upon our arrived in Alaska, the unusually
low temperature immediately overwhelmed us.
Luckily, we arrived at the site early and were helped by the great crew
of Davis Constructors, many volunteers and specifically by Mike Kelly without
whose help the project would not have been completed on time.
After placing the formwork for the base,
we piled snow into it and compacted it manually. The extreme cold at night helped further freeze the snow to its
required consistency. Once, the base
was completed, we placed the plywood mold for the tabletop and tray and
inserted and sealed a membrane to prevent leakage. We decided to pour the water in layers of less than 2 inches each
in order to prevent large deformations.
As we reached the top of the tray, we reduced the amount of water for
each fill and found that the thinner the fill, the better the resulting surface. Finally, we spent a day of chiseling,
surface repair and polishing. The
frozen table was completed, it was perfectly leveled, the ice had an almost
transparent quality, looked generally pristine and the table was exactly
oriented towards the sun at the calculated hour.
When we then proceeded to fill the table
with our prepared mixture on the night before the opening, we found that the
mixture produced cracks and started to leak through the walls of the frozen
tray. We stopped the leaks, but after we
returned next morning, we found that in addition to leaking, the ethanol
mixture had frozen to a solid black mass of ice.
RESULT:
Somehow the result was
surprising, not what we had planned.
The super-cold temperatures made the 50 percent ethanol mixture freeze,
and freeze in unexpected ways. Small
ice blossoms turned up in different colors and shapes while the liquid was in a
semi-frozen state and developed into a series of beautiful crystals. Pieces of ice were frozen into the liquid,
like icebergs in a sea of black and blue.
The ephemeral character of the final installation, the black line in the
white snow, the colors and formations of the traces of the leaks, the ice
crystals at the liquid’s surface, all of that reminded us that, while careful
planning and testing is important, in the end, physics and chemistry take
charge and the table expresses what the material wants to be:
Oil and water don’t mix.
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