The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) conducted a Zoom meeting on Thursday to discuss the art installation concept made for the Eastridge Station created by Laura Haddad and Tom Drugan.
The VTA is an independent district focusing on the transportation systems in Silicon Valley.
According to the VTA website, it is extending the Alum Rock light rail service into the Eastridge Transit Center.
Haddad and Drugan, were chosen out of the 250 artists reviewed during a selection panel to partake in the art project for the transit line in January.
Both of the Seattle-based artists specialize in public artwork.
“Our works are inspired by the places in the community where they're built,” Drugan said. “We use a variety of materials and create visual effects using sun, wind or rain.”
The artists began the design process by talking with the community for inspiration and discussed the important landmarks and San Jose’s specialties.
Alum Rock Park, Evergreen Valley and Vietnam Town were some of the places that inspired the artwork because of their cultural significance.
“We also discovered that there is a wide diversity of cultures in the area that have temples and churches that bring (the) community together,” Haddad said.
After hearing from the community and visiting the areas themselves, “Radiance” became the name for the official art concept for the sculpture.
“‘Radiance’ is an abstract sculpture that's drawn from the community's diverse cultures, celebrations, natural light and environment,” Drugan said.
The proposal revealed a 28 feet tall and 33 feet wide sculpture made from stainless steel pipes, forming an archway, with prisms and hundreds of branch-like rods decorated by warm-toned polycarbonate discs.
“The sculpture forms a portal that you can walk through, the lower arbor forms heart and moon shapes but also more contemporary forms of conduit and circuits,” Drugan said.
He said that when visitors stand underneath the sculpture they’ll be able to look up into the canopy and see colorful fruit and flowers.
“(The) sculpture changes in appearance as people move around and through it when viewed from the center,” Drugan said.
The artwork will be located by the bus terminal that connects the plaza to Eastridge Mall. It will be about 12 feet away from the base of the stairs, leading to the train platform.
After the presentation, the community shared some concerns they had.
“I just want to ensure that it's going to be safe and that it's going to be durable in our environment,” said San Jose resident Melissa Got-Lopez.
“We're using this very durable hard metal, stainless steel that can be refinished over time,” Haddad said. “And it looks good. Even as it ages, we thought about that too. This is a site where there will be a lot of activity and a lot of potentially hard use, so we wanted to use durable materials.”
There will be another opportunity to contribute to this project at the Public Art Committee on October 3, 2023.
The Public Art Committee is an organization that oversees any future projects pertaining to the City’s Public Art Program. They meet once a month in order to discuss the selection, acquisition, placement, and conservation of public works of art in the city's collection.
