Diana Thater

A curious addition recently arrived to the after-dark vista of the Vancouver waterfront: light. Every evening a sliver-thin shaft of light, calibrated to activate at sunset in the Coal Harbour neighbourhood, illuminates the length of the new James Cheng-designed Shaw Tower, which at 489 feet is the city’s tallest. The light column is part of a public art installation by LA-based artist Diana Thater which itself is likely Vancouver’s largest—certainly lengthiest—public art structure.

Last week Thater was in town to see the finished product for herself, and allowed herself a pleased observation.

“It’s elegant and really quite a beautiful thing,” Thater said. “I hope it’s enjoyed because I’m really happy with the result.”

The light element emerges from a fogging device at the building’s base, where the bulbs are tree green. The light flows in a seamless spectrum, green to cyan to blue, up the face of the building, to the rooftop, which is crowned by a beacon of moonlight blue. It is designed to be visible from both North Shore bridges.

Thater, who was recently described by the Tate Modern in the United Kingdom as “one of the driving forces in video art,” is regularly commissioned for work, but Shaw Tower is her first public art work.

Her medium is light, space and colour: “I know about light. I know what it can do. Light is made of red, green and blue. Unlike paint, which is red, blue and yellow. Light is pure colour, as opposed to paint pigment, which is only very rarely pure. Light emits only that colour, it’s a wavelength. Pigment is mixed by eye, but light can be changed digitally.”

The innovative technology, 4896 LED bulbs requiring only 8 kilowatts of power, is provided by Vancouver-based TIR Systems. There are 12 bulbs per foot: 4 red, 4 green and 4 blue. By mixing intensities of the RGB spectrum, a several million-colour palette was made available to the artist. Thater did not so much choose colours as “paint” them with technical consultation from her associate, David Weinreber.

Thater was sought out especially for this lighting project by Shaw Tower’s public art consultant, Lynne Werker. For her part, Thater applauds her partners in the project, singling out Cheng, developer Ian Gillespie and realtor Bob Rennie. Support from the City was equally warm and forthcoming, and local architecture critic Trevor Boddy issued his seal of approval this spring, calling the Shaw Tower “stunning.”

Thater’s interest in the project stems in part from her own educational background in architecture.

“I know from experience and learning how difficult it is to build buildings,” she noted. “I have a deep respect and admiration for good architecture.”

Defying stereotype, Thater is an artist who revels in working closely with architects, such as she did with Vancouver-based Cheng. She’s dismissive of the rabid-ego squabbles which beset some projects, such as the infamously disastrous 1990s collaboration between designer Richard Irwin and architect Robert Meier at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

The reception to Thater’s installation may not be all sweetness and light, however.

Vancouver may gleam as “a city of glass,” to use Douglas Coupland’s memorable turn of phrase, but it lacks a visible skyline. It is beset by the quirky postcard eclecticism of Canada Place’s sail promenade and the gawky TelusSphere geodesic dome, to name only a few architectural culprits. Thater’s installation is bound to attract skeptics decrying a waterfront glowstick.

But any such accusation overlooks the art work’s most appealing aspect. The column is a carefully subdued play of light and colour that doesn’t compete with the natural splendour of the adjacent Stanley Park and Burrard Inlet. Serenely, it reflects it.

The real question is whether this artwork will become a defining visual signature for a city still growing, a Vancouver landmark in the making. The city’s postcard racks in 2010 may become the judge of that.

Special to the Globe & Mail.