''Arbor'' is a 2013 permanent

art installation Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

created by Adam Frank, commissioned for the

Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital The Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital is a public hospital located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The hospital is the flagship medical center for Eskenazi Health, founded in 1859 as Indiana's oldest public healthcare system. The hospital is operated by H ...

, near downtown

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

, Indiana. It is part of the

Eskenazi Health Art Collection The Eskenazi Health Art Collection consists of a wide variety of artworks composed of fragments from the 1914 City Hospital mural and artwork project, artworks added over time, and newer pieces which include works created for the new Sidney & Lois ...

Description

''Arbor'' is a 2013 permanent

created by artist Adam Frank inside

. Utilizing new lighting technologies, this eight-part work displays visually accurate shadows of Indiana native trees via recessed floor-to-ceiling light boxes in the green elevator bays of the hospital on levels 1-3 and 6-10. Of the work’s intention and purpose, Frank said, “''Arbor'' provides the hospital with an iconic, quiet work that symbolizes health and life. This work brings familiar, organic, natural lighting effects into what is normally a cold and sterile environment. Arbor brings natural lighting effects into the modern built environment in an entirely new way. The project is specifically meant to enhance how hospital patients, families and staff feel about the space they occupy.” The feature walls showcase new, patent-pending technology, in which detailed 3D models are vertically sliced, each segment then rendered onto translucent glass and arranged at differing depths. An LED backlight passes through the layers of glass and onto the back surface of

etched glass Glass etching, or "French embossing", is a popular technique developed during the mid-1800s that is still widely used in both residential and commercial spaces today. Glass etching comprises the techniques of creating art on the surface of glass ...

, resulting in highly detailed images close to the viewer and blurred images as the image recedes, creating the effect of both shadows and three dimensions. Each floor's tree is unique and acts as a floor identifier and way-finding symbol:

Historical information

Acquisition

''Arbor'' was commissioned by Eskenazi Health as part of a re-imagining of the organization's historical art collection and to support "the sense of optimism, vitality and energy" of its new

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

in 2013. In response to its nationwide request for proposals, Eskenazi Health received more than 500 submissions from 39 states, which were then narrowed to 54 finalists by an independent jury. Each of the 54 proposals was assigned an area of the new hospital by Eskenazi Health's art committee and publicly displayed in the existing Wishard Hospital and online for public comment; more than 3,000 public comments on the final proposals were collected and analyzed in the final selection.

Location

''Arbor'' is located in the Green Elevator Bays on levels 1-3 and 6-10 of

Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital The Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital is a public hospital located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The hospital is the flagship medical center for Eskenazi Health, founded in 1859 as Indiana's oldest public healthcare system. The hospital is operated by H ...

Awards

''Arbor'' was recognized by

Americans for the Arts Americans for the Arts is a nonprofit organization whose primary focus is advancing the arts in the United States. With offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City, with more than 50 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to rep ...

2014 Public Art Network Year in Review and was presented at The Public Art & Placemaking Conference in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

Artist

Adam Frank studied at both the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

and at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. As an artist, inventor, and product designer, he has exhibited at

SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...

and the

American Museum of the Moving Image The Museum of the Moving Image is a media museum located in a former building of the historic Astoria Studios (now Kaufman Astoria Studios), in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York City. The museum originally opened in 1988 as the Amer ...

, among others, and has designed lighting goods that are sold through the Design Store at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York. Frank’s work has been profiled extensively in the media, including by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

HGTV HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. As of February 2015, appr ...

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big c ...

Dwell Dwell may refer to: * ''Dwell'' (album), a 2020 album by Recondite * ''Dwell'' (magazine), a monthly American publication focused on modern architecture and design * Dwell (retailer), a leading UK furniture and accessories company * "Dwell" (s ...

and the

Architectural Record ''Architectural Record'' is a US-based monthly magazine dedicated to architecture and interior design. "The Record," as it is sometimes colloquially referred to, is widely-recognized as an important historical record of the unfolding debates in a ...

. He lives and works in

Brooklyn, N.Y. Brooklyn () is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county i ...

References

External links

Adam Frank's website

Eskenazi Health Art installations (video)
{{EskenaziHealthArtCollection Eskenazi Health Art Collection 2013 works