In collaboration with the City of Laguna Beach, the museum has commissioned a work of art for Art & Nature – a site-specific, multicolored, kinetic installation (a “Skynet”) off Main Beach over Main Beach Park. Entitled Sunset Trace, it will seamlessly weave through the palm trees along the shoreline, traversing sections of the walkways and cliffs between the gazebo and Main Beach in a stunning, windburn display. Sunset Trace will be on view from November 5 through November 15, 2020.
Inspired by the graceful murmuration of birds flocking together, or schools of fish coalescing and moving simultaneously, Patrick Shearn’s signature Skynets are a constant reminder of nature moving around us. Suspended using transparent monofilament netting and rigged inconspicuously, the undulating forms appear to levitate in midair, finessed by the unique wind patterns of each site, revealing unseen natural elements in unusual, dramatic ways.
Preview Sunset Trace
Patrick Shearn
Patrick Shearn is an LA-based artist specializing in larger-than-life, immersive public art installations. The artist’s signature kinetic sculptures, called Skynets, earned him international renown after the debut of Liquid Shard enamored the city of Los Angeles. The installation transformed an underused public square in the heart of downtown into a bustling destination overnight. Shearn has since brought Skynet installations to various locations in the U.S. and abroad where viewers are invariably compelled to slow down and take time to follow the undulating movement of the artworks, which appear to hang in thin air.
Shearn’s expertise in animatronics, robotics and visual effects–gleaned from a 30-year tenure in the film industry as a creature maker and visual effects supervisor–has lent traction to a prolific career as creative director for his studio Poetic Kinetics.
Under Shearn’s guiding vision, Poetic Kinetics has designed, fabricated, and implemented a wide range of projects that encourage audience participation–from interactive projection mapping and pyrotechnics to enormous mobile sculptures. Notably, Poetic Kinetics’ projects both engage the immediate public through interactivity and reach viral notoriety on social media.
Art & Nature is generously funded by an anonymous donor, the McBeth Foundation, Elie Weaver and Hilton Weinberg, the City of Laguna Beach, the Orange County Community Foundation, the William Gillespie Foundation, Chris Quilter, the FOA Foundation, and the Laguna Art Museum Arts Council.
Sponsors also include the Lodging Establishments of Laguna Beach, The Inn at Laguna Beach, the Laguna Beach Independent, KCRW, Visit Laguna Beach, and JAG Architecture.
Art & Nature 2020 Committee: Gregg and Kathleen Abel, Jane and Joe Hanauer, Robin Kalota, Barbara and Greg MacGillivray, David Powers, Chris Quilter, Elie Weaver and Hilton Weinberg.
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