Polymery lights up Laguna as new public art installation

The lights have been left on after hours outside Laguna Beach City Hall of late, catching the eyes of those traveling past. A 14-foot sculpture with LED lighting emitting from a pair of suspended, pod-like figures each with a footprint of 10 feet has been the source of a colorful light show.

Artist Taylor Dean Harrison calls the creation “Polymery,” a mixed-media artwork that brings together multiple pieces to create a singular effect. Together, the sculptures and the light source cast a shadow that places the colors and patterns on the ground below.

Harrison used steel, mirrored stainless steel and LED lighting to complete the project.

Taylor Dean Harrison’s “Polymery” brings color to Laguna Beach City Hall.

(Andrew Turner)

“When I designed those, I didn’t intend for the inside to be doing much,” Harrison said. “I just wanted the light to pass through and the outside to be shiny. What I found was that the inside, of course, because it’s stainless steel, was shiny, so I was getting all these caustics, all these new strange light bounces and bends, and I didn’t actually plan on that. In Laguna, I found some vinyl that was as close to the color of the sculpture as I could, and I had to mask some parts of the reflection so they wouldn’t hit the streets.

“The shadows, I draw those beforehand. The shadows, I know, are going to go in a 60-foot-diameter circle, but that inner surface is a really hard thing to imagine where the light’s going to go.”

Harrison, 35, who grew up just a short drive down the coast in San Clemente, could not contain his excitement at the thought of exhibiting close to his hometown. This is the first time his work has been shown in Orange County.

“‘You’re kidding — Laguna Beach?’” Harrison said, recounting his reaction when told he had the chance to have his work displayed in town. “I grew up like two towns away from there. I went there all the time. It’s so exciting. Every time I think about the fact my art is there, it gets me. It puts a big smile on my face to kind of come home.”

Taylor Dean Harrison

(Courtesy of Taylor Dean Harrison)

Harrison graduated in 2006 from San Clemente High, where he starred in basketball as an All-CIF performer for the Tritons. He continued on as a center at Cal, but injuries signaled an early end to his playing days.

While both art and music had been present in his life up to that point, it meant a new direction going forward. At first, he found himself working in an office. Then an apprenticeship came along with a sculptor named Michael Christian.

“The art was always there,” Harrison added. “I just didn’t know exactly what. I think the real watershed moment was going and working in an office, and while I loved the place that I worked …, I was at a concert — a David Byrne and St. Vincent concert — and I saw what they were doing on stage, and they were doing something that was more than just a concert.

“I was standing there, and I was like, ‘I need to be doing that. I need to create.’”

The relationship with his mentor remains alive and well. Christian and Harrison are working on a collaborative project for the Electric Daisy Carnival music festival that will allow those interacting with it to walk through it, Harrison said.

Polymery was installed in mid-March and is scheduled to remain on the lawn at City Hall for three months through June 18, according to Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Manager Sian Poeschl. The lights come on from 5 to 7 a.m. and from 5:30 p.m. to midnight.

“By creating immersive installations, I try to tap into the endless ‘possible universes’ that can be created with art,” Harrison noted in an artist statement featured on an educational panel in front of Polymery. “I use this as a way to remind myself of the potentiality of my own life. I hope to make artwork that nudges viewers, and myself, to find that light amongst our mental and physical struggles. To me, a moment of awe can be a powerful salve.”

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