Bio: Adrian Yu, 32, New York and Los Angeles
Here, we ask the artist about the details behind a recent work.
Title of work: Strata
Where to see it: Mesa City Hall, Arizona,
Three words to describe it: Monumental. Mutable. Mindful.
What was on your mind at the time: As a permanent installation, Strata invites reflection on the city’s climate initiatives, the work’s themes, and my identity as an artist in contrast to Mesa’s history. Bold in both vision and aesthetics, its evolving legacy will define its significance over time.
With my fabrication partner Digital Ambiance, our goal was to create a piece that aligns with the city’s environmental goals, holds it accountable to those initiatives, and stands as a visual and thematic iconoclast among local works. Rather than a fleeting zeitgeist piece, I aimed for something enduring—leveraging cutting-edge technology while leaving space to observe and test public reaction.
An interesting feature that’s not immediately noticeable: The simulations within the arches are powered by the city’s climate data to generate real-time simulations of wind and water, with weather updates influencing the lighting, trajectory, and speed of fluid and particle patterns in constant flux. There is a day-to-night cycle, with the day being a riverbed and night being a sand storm.
Responding directly to the city’s climate action plan, every new tree that’s planted in Mesa introduces new flora into the environment, creating a living ecosystem.
How the work reflects your practice as a whole: My work explores spatial cinema—deconstructing traditional cinematic language beyond the frame into nonlinear physical space, giving viewers agency to experience narrative through more than just sight and sound.
Strata embodies this practice, evolving over time through its connection to the city’s climate and civic data as a site- and time-specific work. With multiple viewing perspectives and ever-changing simulations, Strata becomes a living narrative shaped by the city, its climate, and its people.
