New public art installation combines climate science and 1930's car design

Wife-husband collaborators and UPenn School of Design faculty Deirdre Murphy and Scott White recently completed a 5 by 25 foot sculpture that was installed last month in the burgeoning Silicon Valley city of Dublin, CA.

The installation, titled Warbler Migration, took nearly two years to complete, combining Murphy’s fine arts expertise and climate science research with White’s unique knowledge of digital modeling and 1930’s car design. Murphy and White will be discussing the groundbreaking project at University Arts’ Design Philadelphia event this October, detailing their unusual design and build process—an integration of traditional and digital fabrication techniques.

Like the sky directly above it, the sculpture is blue and white by day, and by night glows with the same constellations, which guide the seasonal flight of the native Orange-Crowned Warbler (rendered in cast stainless steel) through this dynamic city.

“This is a lovely addition to the growing collection of public art that residents and visitors can enjoy as they go about their day. What’s especially fun about this piece is Ms. Murphy has carefully incorporated scientific research about a local bird species to make her artwork educational as well as beautiful,” said Tegan McLane, Dublin's Cultural Arts and Heritage Manager.

Murphy has been researching the effects of climate change on bird migration for several years and uses scientific data sets to conceptualize her paintings of flocks in transit. In order to replicate the spatial relationships so realistically represented in her paintings, the sculptural wall needed to consist of parallel panels shaped in a hyperbolic curve.

The Orange Crowned Warbler, a Bay Area migratory bird, inspires the sculpture. The artwork draws parallels between avian flocks and residential communities and integrates nature into the civic realm. The constellations will be softly lit and visible at night. Thirty cast Orange Crowned Warblers can be seen flying through the sculpture activating the artwork into a sky space.

Warbler Migration will complement the rich tradition of public art in the City of Dublin while celebrating regional wildlife, integration of local landscape and appreciation of the growing community of Dublin. 

As artists and educators—both are on the faculty of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design —Murphy and White see the opportunity to create public art as an especially fulfilling one because of the potential to touch so many lives. 

“Art enhances one’s quality of life, says Murphy. “It can provide moments of reflection and act as a vessel for memory and narrative. Art offers a shared experience of beauty that opens the mind.”

It is a value shared by Bay West Development, the group that conceived of and funded the project for their newly-constructed Aster Apartment Properties plaza.

“We wanted a consequential work of art that would induce people to pause from their busy routines and connect to the surrounding environment. Deirdre’s research into bird migration through Dublin, her vision of how the residents could engage with the sculpture, and the quality of Warbler Migration in itself far exceeds our expectations.” says Sean Murphy, of Bay West Development.

Scott White is a senior lecturer in animation at the University of Pennsylvania. His sculpture, animation, and designs have been show nationally and internationally at venues including Design Philadelphia, Philly Works, Woodmere Art Museum, Gross McCleaf Gallery, and the Abington Art Center. Scott has been a visiting artist at institutions such as Philadelphia University, Moore College, and Wilmington University, Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum and is the owner and operator of Preservation Coachworks LLC.

Deirdre Murphy is an adjunct professor of fine arts at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, at institutions including the Philadelphia International Airport, New Bedford Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowship and a Leeway Foundation award, and is represented by the Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia; her work can be viewed at www.deirdremurphyart.com.

photo credit: Matt Faisetty Photography