Scattering Surface, 2024
Installation at Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston, TX
Laser cut stainless steel and stainless steel
180 x 252 x 20”
All photos: Nash Baker Photography
View video of installation here
Hermann Park Conservancy commissioned Shotz to create a new sculpture for Hermann Park to kick off a re-energized Art in the Park program alongside the opening of the Commons. Installed in April 2024, the new 16-foot high sculpture: Scattering Surface is named for a phenomenon of light itself. It refers to cosmological theory about the first light of the universe that is visible to us.
The sculpture is composed of thousands of welded stainless steel circles, which reflect light and scatter the visible surroundings into tiny pieces, shifting and moving across the sculpture like an analog screen. The play between the reflections and the spaces between reflections draws attention to the idea of solidity itself as the sculpture creates an optical continuum where negative and positive space continually intertwine.
In Scattering Surface, Shotz is looking at large-scale steel sculpture in a different way. Instead of creating a solid and heavy welded piece, she has created something light - air flows through it and the steel almost seems translucent.
You can find Scattering Surface in the quiet area between the Japanese Garden, McGovern Lake, and the pedestrian island and bridge. Please find a map here for the location.
Shotz’s work is included in numerous public collections, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Guggenheim Bilbao, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and Storm King Art Center among others.