Two layers of fence material with white plastic discs attached to the outer layer create a translucent, three dimensional, and evocative image of hands reaching up to the sky.

Some signs can be considered works of art, and many sign makers consider themselves artists, or at least craftspeople with an eye for aesthetics and good composition. But there is a difference between commercial art and fine art, even when the art is displayed in public on a scale similar to many sign projects. Though some signs contain no words at all, and large scale graphics are mounted on the sides of buildings to advertise an event or create an image, they are usually paid for by the business or event organizer, and often are intended for relatively short-term display. 

 

Public art, on the other hand, is usually sponsored by a city arts program and paid for with donations or public funds, and the artwork is usually intended to become a permanent fixture for the community and visitors to enjoy for generations. Such is the case with a mural installed on the façade of the Mineta San Jose International Airport’s new parking garage located across the roadway from the newly completed Terminal B.

 

From very close, the pixels become an abstract arrangement of dots, but for most travelers and the residents that welcome them, the image of hands will beckon from the walls of the newly constructed parking garage.

Titled “Hands” and created by international artist Christian Moeller, the image is 60 feet high and 1,200 feet long, designed as an integral part of the building’s architecture and developed in a highly collaborative effort with several partners. Though it appears from a distance to be some sort of digital print on fabric, the reality turned out to be something completely different.

 

The process began with an invitation to several artists who had experience with large projects. In this competition, Christian Moeller was chosed to work in collaboration with the project architects to develop the concept for this project.  According to Moeller, “The most expressive human feature next to the face is the hands. They are used for greeting, signaling to each other, and they speak a universal language. Their form is organic, natural, so that a lot of hands next to each other becomes like a forest of fingers reaching to the sky. If you look closely, you can distinguish old from young, female from male, but you could have the chief of police next to a homeless person.” All of the diversity of the San Jose community is represented here without prejudice. 

 

The several 100-pound panels were lifted into place with ground mounted cranes and attached to the parking garage façade.

The process of designing, engineering and selecting materials began with a series of meetings between the artist, architect, airport management, San Jose Public Art Program management and other contractors. Before the image was fully developed, an innovative solution was found that utilized standard chain link fence materials as an alternative to the typical pre-cast concrete façade of the parking garage. 

 

“To accomplish something this monumental required everyone to be enrolled in the potential of the project, and committed to a creative outcome from the beginning,” explains Mary Rubin of the San Jose Art Program. A design commission of $100,000 was established for the artist to work in collaboration with the architects from concept through working drawings and implementation, contributing to the process as a consultant. Fentress Architects developed the engineering and working drawings and submitted them for approval along with the plans for the terminal and parking garage structures. Once the building façade system was developed, Moeller began the process of image development.

 

Moeller also worked closely with the Airport’s design/build contractor Hensel Phelps Construction Company, which hired the architect and assembled the team to develop the method of attaching the fence materials to the façade. Hensel Phelps also brought in North American Fence Company during the design phase to handle the fabrication and installation of the mural panels.

 

A side view shows the denser mesh mounted several inches behind the chain link, creating a background to enhance the impact of the images of hands.

The image began with photographs of the hands of 54 Silicon Valley residents from all walks of life, reaching toward the sky. Moeller assembled the hands to fit the format of the garage façade and manipulated the photographic images with hand drawing and individual enhancement, applying the image to the grid of the fence to determine where the dots should be placed to create the desired effect. To provide a background for the very translucent 2" grid of the chain link fence material, a 3/8" mini-mesh was installed spaced 7" behind the “Bitwall” image.

 

Another partner was brought in at this stage to design machines that would handle the 12 foot by 63 foot fence panels, transferring the pixel placement from the drawings to the fence material using light. Carlson and Company, based in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California, has worked with many well-known international artists over the past 33 years to fabricate highly specialized sculptures and art installations all over the world. They designed the machines pictured, to roll the fence material across a grid of holes, which light up to indicate where each pixel should be placed according to the digital pattern. Ten workers on two machines then assembled each plastic pixel by hand and glued the two parts together around the appropriate intersection of the fence wires. 

 

Local workers were hired to attach approximately 400,000 pixels by hand, operating two machines designed for the task of transferring the pixel pattern to the fence material using light.

The Airport provided a hangar for assembly space, and Carlson hired local workers, who applied approximately 400,000 two-part plastic disks to the fence panels to create the high-resolution pixilated image that you see from a distance. In order to meet the base project schedule, the enhanced fence panels were provided to North American Fence to be installed as the attachment of the pixels continued on the remaining panels. The fence panels were numbered and flagged to ensure that they would be installed in the correct order and orientation. The panels with their pixels in place were rolled and bubble wrapped to protect them during transport, and they had to be handled carefully to avoid damaging any of the disks during installation.

 

The plastic for the disks was formulated specifically for this project to comply with flammability standards, to deter vandalism and to hold up to long-term weather conditions. The size and design were the same that was used by Moeller on a previous art installation done at a bus terminal in Seattle. In that case, the disks were applied after the fence was in place, and the maximum height of the image was six feet from the ground. The methods used were quite different, but the math behind the transfer of the imagery was very much the same.

 

The enhanced fence panels were carefully packaged for transport to the jobsite to protect the pixels during handling and installation.

According to all of the partners involved, the collaboration process and implementation of this project went very smoothly, and every participant handled their part with impeccable professionalism, finding solutions and working to keep to the schedule and stay within budget through each phase. For example, one option for installation that had been discusses was to lift small cranes up on to the roof of the garage and hoist the panels into place from above, but to avoid any danger of damaging the garage structure during the installation process, the cranes were operated from the ground, which of course required at least a 70-foot boom and plenty of accessible space below the façade. The installation process turned out to be more labor intensive than anticipated, but with the right equipment, the panels were hoisted into place without problems.

 

Though a sign company might never consider using chain link fence as a sign substrate, the processes and implementation of a public work of art such as “Hands” are very familiar to any sign maker who has installed a banner wrap on a skyscraper or a large logo on a building façade in an urban area. We may not have to deal with our work passing the scrutiny of an arts council, but we can certainly appreciate the effort and collaboration that is required to provide a well-designed, beautifully crafted work of art for our community to enjoy.