'Concrete is Fluid'Behind the New Neon Sign

Concrete is Fluid
Farmlab
Neon Gas Inside Clear Tubing
2007

Farmlab's latest neon sign reads, "Concrete is Fluid."

The piece is some thirty-feet-long by five-feet-tall; it's written in a bold, fuschian color, in a boxy sans-serif font.

The sign is located in the garage in front of Farmlab -- where the relative darkness makes the sign ever-more visible.

At Farmlab, the three-word phrase was first mentioned by team member Steve Rowell; the observation was based on previous work done, in Houston, Texas, by the Center for Land Use Interpretation. (Rowell is a principal in that group.)

At Farmlab that day, among the various topics of discussion were: fountains, in general, and the brutalist architecture of the Hayward Gallery, located on London's concrete-laden South Bank.

Farmlab team members liked the notion of concrete being seen as something it's not, at least in the standard sense; as well as applying it to a very concrete place -- in this case, both the Farmlab parking garage as well as the London gallery.

Think of the three words, Rowell explained, as being a projection of architecture versus nature, in an oblique way. "All concrete was fluid for a brief period of time," he says, "between being rock and rock again."

Photo posted by laavocado; photo courtesy flickr.com's creative commons license