Anaheim OKs Interactive Art for Pond Lobby

The City Council has approved the third and final public art work to be installed at the Pond, a moving, musical sculpture with which people can interact.

“Musical Gateway,” by artists Nancy Mooslin of Los Angeles and Sandra Rowe of Riverside and composer Steven Stucky of New York, will be placed at the east lobby entrance of the sports center this fall.

The piece will consist of four brightly painted abstract aluminum sculptures, extending overhead across the arched ceiling at the entrance. Each of the undulating, multipart sculptures is an interpretation of one of the four parts of Stucky’s music. Viewers will be able to push buttons to trigger different sections of the music as well as fiber-optic lighting that will flow in time with the music, along the length of each sculpture.

The artists say their work will be “a high impact, fun, spirited, friendly welcome” that is “in keeping with the color, spirit, pattern and ornamentation familiar to the ethnic cultures that Southern California and Anaheim are known for.” They note that “the Native American, Spanish and Mexican, African American, Asian, Middle Eastern, Anglo and Eastern European cultures have all used geometric, patterned ornamentation to make their homes and important gathering places special, beautiful and more inviting.”

The city required that 1% of the Pond’s construction costs be spent on artworks. “Musical Gateway,” which will cost $100,000, was chosen by an Arena Citizens’ Art Advisory Committee from submissions by 700 artists in Southern California who were invited to participate.

The other works of public art at the Pond, already in place, are Nam June Paik’s “Video Arch,’ an arch-shaped bank of 106 TV monitors flashing a montage of video imagery, and “The Anamorph,” an exterior sculpture relating to sports in ancient Greece, by Richard Turner, Ann Preston and Michael Davis.