FRAGMENTA
OSMAN AKAN

PROJECT PROFILE:

Artist: Osman Akan
Title: Fragmenta
Materials: Stainless Steel, Dichroic Glass, HID Lights, Concrete
Fabrication: Demiurge
Installation: Demiurge + Neeser Construction
Engineering: Reid Middleton
Location: Crime Detection Labratory, Anchorage, Alaska

Fragmenta includes 300 squares of stainless steel and dichroic glass panels that hang from a 20 foot tall brushed stainless steel structure.

From its concave and convex surfaces to the orientation of its structure, the entire artwork is formed by the daily and yearly cycles of the Sun in the particular location of the Alaska Crime Detection Laboratory. Much like the shifting colors of the seasons, the artwork also changes its appearance by reflecting and refracting sunrays, and by the observation angle of its audience.

From Artist:

Perhaps more than the mountainous terrain and the highly fetishized wildlife, the sun is the unique force behind declaring Alaska “the final frontier.” Sometimes a constant and other times a void over the Northern Sky, light rays determine life in this sub-arctic location. Light plays a pivotal role in forensic research as well. Often clues come alive by using various light sources and filters that block and reveal certain rays. In short, it is by using light that we can see what is otherwise hidden to our bare eyes. Departing from this point, the concept for the Alaska Crime Lab Project started with a reflection on the idea of forensics, the type of processes that are performed at the lab, and the meaning of a site-specific artwork for this location.As an attempt to capture some of the qualities of the light in this particular location, Fragmenta utilizes filters that allow the artwork to change its appearance and colors based on the position of the sun, artificial lighting and the viewing angle of its audience. As part of its concept, Fragmenta will change its appearance as the conditions change from long days to long nights, from green of the summer to white cover of the winter in Alaska.The interplay between the transparent glass panels and stainless steel panels that are impenetrable by light rays depicts the gathering, clarifying and organizing of information. In the square shape of a computer pixel, the scattered tiles of the artwork are dynamic and turbulent but also clear and meditative.I hope that the audience of Fragmenta will find new and exciting clues every time they gaze upon the artwork.

If you’ve ever been to the Denver Botanic Gardens, you may have seen a similar design growing out of the parking structure’s atrium, Akan’s Albedo, which Demiurge also fabricated and installed in 2010.