How artists soften a mass of concrete

For years, pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers have passed the retaining walls on either side of Homedale Dr, east of the I-405 Freeway, and seen a mass of flat concrete. The Greenmeme artists saw an opportunity to soften the gray mass and engage passersby with a bit of local history.

Freya Bardell and Brian Howe wanted to create a design that spanned both retaining walls, presenting a single concept to the thousands of Angelinos who pass the walls daily.

Greenmeme was selected by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs to add an art component when the two walls are reconstructed later this year. The walls, which will total over 1,200 feet in length, sit on City of Los Angeles land between Montana Av and Sunset Bl. (To better identify the walls, the I-405 project team refers to them as 1720 and 1730, with 1720 being the wall south of Homedale Dr.)

Although there will be two separate walls, Brian Howe and Freya Bardell, the Greenmeme designers, wanted to create a design that spanned both, presenting a concept to the thousands of Angelinos who pass the walls daily.

“We really thought it was important to address the entire surface, to deal with the entirely of the walls,“ explains Howe, who was trained as an architect. “We wanted to engage the audience at the different speeds and height they would travel past the walls. We knew there would be pedestrian traffic and automotive traffic, and we knew some of the walls would be visible from half a mile away.”

Greenmeme’s inspiration was to wind a dense variety of images across the walls, some of which will rise to 45 feet. When viewed at a distance, the images resemble lace draped over a table. When observed more closely, the “lace” contains dozens of repeated images. Howe explains the effect as revealing community history beneath the walls’ facade.

To select those images, Greenmeme (“meme” rhymes with "cream”) will ask community members to share iconic images and artifacts that represent their experiences of Sepulveda Pass history.

“We need any unique documentation, such as photographs of particular people, places and events,” Howe explains. “Community input will be mixed into a creative ‘soup.’ From that soup, we will choose the final images.” Besides adding ornamentation to the walls, Howe believes the design will emphasize the 3-D quality of the structures and occasional insets.

Besides creating a fitting and attractive design, Howe and Bardell have considered questions about maintainability, resistance to vandalism and sustainable attributes of their solution—all concerns of public art.

“From early on, we considered maintenance,” Howe adds. He and Bardell, whose training is in art and ecology, abandoned the use of two-dimensional ceramic tile to decorate the walls because the tiles would be prone to damage and difficult to repair. Instead they chose to manipulate the actual wall material itself.

Consequently, if a piece of a wall must be repainted to cover vandalism, the new paint will not diminish the 3-D quality of the lace and its component images.

Although not the largest public art piece Greenmeme has designed, the 1720/1730 project is moving at a rapid pace compared to its other public art pieces.

“We are basically handing off the design at the end of May, and then, by the end of the year, it will be up and done,” said Howe.

“We hope all our projects grow more interesting over time,” Howe says. “For example, repairs might add a slightly different color of gray paint. Fifty years from now, you would end up with a gray-scale patchwork. It would, in essence, archive what has happened on that site over the years.”

Far from feeling constrained by the practical realities that must be weighed when creating public art, Howe finds those realities feed his creativity.

“I enjoy incorporating these challenges into an effective piece of art,” he says.

Ned Racine