This site-specific light installation and mural is designed to evoke a view of the city as if looking through a kaleidoscope;  a sense of optimism, exuberance, vitality and an ever-changing feeling of wonder.  Exploring pattern as a way of conveying narrative is an essential part of my practice and in this project I’ve employed a repeating motif of the Newark city skyline punctuated with notable architectural landmarks that might be seen from it’s location on the 15th fl of the Audible headquarters in Downtown Newark. Punctuating the work are flowers that reference the cherry blossoms that fill the city every spring. 

 The inspiration of the kaleidoscope also allowed me to explore the idea of dynamic change.  In the same way that a twist of the barrel of a kaleidoscope provides infinite possibilities of color and shape, the city provides one endless opportunity to see it and be seen in it.  The kaleidoscope seems an apt metaphor for seeing the city in endlessly different ways with no two views or perspectives being exactly the same.  This in turn reminds that these individual vistas are as different as Newark’s richly diverse population.  Each of the buildings represented in the wallpaper tells a multi-voiced, layered narrative of its inhabitants as well as of the city itself.

The title is a play on the local pronunciation of Newark, “Nork,” and “kaleidoscope”.