ALBEDO
OSMAN AKAN
PROJECT PROFILE:
Artist: Osman Akan
Title: Albedo
Materials: Stainless Steel, Dichroic Glass
Fabrication + Installation: Demiurge
Engineering: KL&A
Location: Denver Botanic Gardens
Commissioned by the City and County of Denver
From Artist:
"Among many interventions on otherwise balanced order of nature, botanic gardens are perhaps the most interesting and worthy of human designs. With irrigation and lighting systems, controlled heat and nutrients these spaces are designed by the study of botanics and attempts to replicate and sustain various natural conditions. As a public artist who is interested in new media and materials I am attracted to the questions of sustainability. Natural elements that give color, life and beauty are the very same elements that can deteriorate public artworks.
As an outdoor site-specific artwork for the Denver Botanic Gardens, Albedo project started with a few simple reflections on the idea of botanic gardens and their relation to Sun. From its concave and convex surfaces to the orientation of its structure, entire artwork is formed by the daily and yearly cycles of the Sun in the particular location of Denver Botanic Gardens. Much like the shifting colors of the seasons, artwork also changes its appearance by reflecting and refracting sunrays, and observation angle of its audience. As an artwork that utilizes natural light Albedo has an inner rhythm that I hope will capture and extend the moment of its audience’s sense of place."