Common Ground, By Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong + Arup

COMMON GROUND 2023

Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong, with lighting design and programming by Xena Petkanas and Christoph Gisel, Arup.
Lighting and controls provided by: Nanometer and Electric Lighting Agencies.

Plywood, wood stud structure, paint, hardware, LEDs, sensors, controller, vinyl floor motifs.

COMMON GROUND is a community pavilion and a site-specific, interactive public artwork comprised of a colorful seating landscape and floor motifs that dance across the plaza. Drawing inspiration from the geometry of shrines and sacred spaces and referencing the terraces of the site, this architectural intervention transforms the plaza into an oasis for sitting, socializing, and gathering by day and by night. COMMON GROUND creates a bold, joyous addition to the plaza, and offers a playful topography to embrace the here and now. As a community hub, COMMON GROUND aspires to cultivate togetherness and resilience, while encouraging moments of pause, reflection, and play.

During the evening, COMMON GROUND is illuminated with color-changing lighting and sensors that register environmental audio. Custom-designed lighting shimmers across the sculpture’s steps in response to these sounds — the movements of passers-by, footsteps on the structure, voices, the ambient hum of traffic. The colored lights, blending with the vibrantly painted vertical faces of the wooden topography, create a dynamic symphony through these ever-changing, kaleidoscopic transformations; our perception of color is constantly shifting. Here, COMMON GROUND is a place of joy and light; celebrating inclusion, diversity and togetherness.

DBP has curated a programming series to complement the experience of COMMON GROUND. We welcome everyone to join us at the following performances: