With the expansion of a new building for the Dean McGee Eye Institute (DMEI) in Oklahoma City, Okla., came the need for an accompanying piece of public art. The Oklahoma Health Center Foundation and DMEI announced the results of an international call for artists competition in early April 2008. The team of Shan Shan Sheng and Mark Dziewulski of San Francisco and London were chosen out of more than 50 artists for the commissioned sculpture.

Dziewulski, designed the 20- x 8-foot multidimensional sculpture of an abstracted eye. Shan Shan Sheng, a Chinese-American painter and sculptor, created the watercolor imagery that gives the sculpture its magenta, purple and blue hues. Architectural Glass Art (AGA) fabricated the 44 panels of laminated glass for the sculpture to match the design exactly, and delicately installed each piece of art glass to the stainless steel framing.

The completed art is a dynamic composition of straight lines, vivid colors, complex angles and reflective surfaces. By day, the sun radiates light through the transparent panels allowing the sculpture to shine. When night falls, the static structure is illuminated, ensuring its glow is distinguished from the dark sky.

AGA’s installation team lead by John Sastre, who was assisted by Bob Cheever and Bart Herre, worked for roughly a week during install. After installation was completed and the team returned home, a dirt mound was piled around the base of the sculpture and covered with sod. This gives the illusion that the sculpture levitates slightly above the hill. The final touch, signage for the institute, was mounted to the curved brick wall that surrounds the hill and sculpture.