Zenith
Permanent spatial artwork · 2020
- ArtistDavid Spriggs
- Date2020
- Dimensions381 × 185 × 185 cm
150 × 73 × 73 in - MaterialsAcrylic on layered plexiglass in an LED lit plexiglass display case
- LocationGeorge Street Public Room, Queen’s Marque, Halifax, Canada
- CommissionThe Armour Group
Zenith holds a breaking wave at the threshold between formation and collapse.
The crest appears momentarily coherent, yet its body remains open: an accumulation of painted marks, light, and intervals suspended within the architecture. From the principal viewpoint, these fragments converge into a powerful image. From the side, the wave disperses into parallel planes.
Installed at Queen’s Marque on the Halifax waterfront, the work enters into dialogue with the Atlantic rather than illustrating it. The wave becomes an image of force, instability, and temporal compression, connecting the interior public room to the changing body of water beyond it.
A suspended instant
The title denotes a highest point. Here, that apex is also a critical instant before change: the moment at which the wave can no longer rise and must begin to fall. The sculpture gives this transition spatial duration, allowing the viewer to move through different states of the same event.
Its image is neither fully solid nor simply pictorial. It gathers through vision, becomes most legible at a distance, and dissolves at close range. The work therefore connects the instability of the sea with the instability of perception itself.
Zenith was commissioned by The Armour Group for the George Street Public Room at Queen’s Marque, Halifax, where it remains permanently installed. Photography by Irina Barinova.