Talus Dome

Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues explore the nexus of art, architecture, and industrial design. Their work has been exhibited at major institutions throughout the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum; PS1; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; arc en rêve centre d’architecture + Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux; the Venice Biennale, the Hong Kong | Shenzhen Biennale; and the Beijing Biennale. They have received numerous honors including three American Institute of Architects Design Awards, United States Artists Target Fellowships and a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. In 2007, the Studio was the winner of the Museum of Modern Arts PS1 Young Architects Program Competition. Recently, their work became part of the permanent collection of MoMA. In 2011 they were one of the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices. The partners have taught in the graduate architecture programs at the Southern California Institute of Architecture;the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California. Their work has appeared in a variety of publications worldwide including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, Architectural Record, Artforum, Icon, Log, Architectural Digest, and Sculpture.

Composed of nearly 1,000 hand crafted stainless steel spheres that together assume the shape of an abstracted pile or mound, Talus Dome reflects the sky, the weather and the river of cars that pass by it. Talus Dome is both a sculpture in the landscape and a mirror to the landscape. Before the Quesnell bridge was constructed, talus forms of earth occurred naturally along the river valley. The artwork reminds us of the landscape that has been altered by the bridge, a rigid, controlled construction that meets our need to traverse the obstacle of the river. It refers to the coexistence of the man-made and the natural. The spheres were fabricated by hand, either spun or hydro-formed depending on the particular size. Each sphere then went through a grinding and polishing process to achieve the mirror finish. The marine grade 316L mirror polished stainless steel used is among the highest-grade stainless steel available for architectural scaled applications. It will remain ageless through the cycle of seasons and over many years. At the same time, the surface of Talus Dome will take on different colors with the changing seasons and hours of the day. Its visual quality is not static, and therefore creates a balance between its permanence, and its changeable appearance that suggests the mutability of nature. The sculpture is located at a major junction of the city’s river valley trail system, and is accessible to a wide range of people – walkers, runners, bikers, skiers, inline skaters. While visible from the road, the best way to experience Talus Dome is from the adjacent trail.