Her Secret is Patience
Sophia Briseno
It has been referred to as many different things — Desert Rose sculpture, hanging thing above Civic Space Park, mesh thing hanging sculpture, but what really hovers above Civic Space Park in Phoenix, Ariz.?
In 2009, the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture commissioned the artist Janet Echelman to help revitalized downtown Phoenix. With a budget of $2.5 million, Echelman and a team of engineers, architects, lightening designers, and fabricators, then created the sculpture Her Secret is Patience. It hangs above the park at Taylor Street and Central Avenue.
The artwork has become a symbol of Downtown Phoenix and is something one has to see in person because it is almost impossible to describe the essence of its beauty with words. It was inspired but American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, ‘Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.’
Her Secret is Patience has won various awards including 2008 Award for Excellence in Structural Engineering, Structural Engineers Association of Arizona, 2009 Valley Forward Crescordia Award, 2009 Reader’s Choice Award for “Best Public Art,” Phoenix New Times, 2010 Year in Review Award, Public Art Network and 2011 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence Silver Medal.
Elchelman is a Harvard College graduate who knew she was going to be an artist. She then traveled all over the world in hopes of pursuing her dream. Today she has pieces of art all of the world and Phoenix’s Civic Space Park is lucky enough to have one on display.
As soon as one opens up Echelman’s webpage and portfolio it can be immediately recognized that the Civic Space Park sculpture is hers. Her portfolio is full of hanging wire and net pieces that light up in the night sky. They all almost appear as if a creature is glowing through the darkness of the night, and Her Secret is Patience is no different.
According to Echelman’s website, Her Secret is Patience is a “…145-ft-tall aerial sculpture…” and was inspired by Arizona’s monsoons and flowers. During the day, the polyester and steel sculpture is beautiful but at night it takes on a whole other level and lights up the sky.
The lightening of Her Secret is Patience varies throughout the year and depends on the season Phoenix is in. In the summer the sculpture will have cool hues and in the winter warmer tones to balance out the weather. However no matter what, you can always count on that once the sun goes down, the sculpture will be lit.
Downtown Phoenix can also always count on having people across the street whether it be when the sculpture is unlit at day or glowing in the night sky, somebody will be standing under Her Secret is Patience, or near it to take its photo and stand mesmerized at that hanging thing above the park.
