‘Euphonic & Chromatic Drift’ at 30th Street Station

by Heather Shayne Blakeslee

EXCERPT //

Artist Adam Crawford has murals and public art installations all over the city, and his latest is an optical art piece that brings color and movement to the windows of the iconic 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. He corresponded with RQ Editor Heather Blakeslee over email.

HSB: What’s the concept behind the installation Euphonic & Chromatic Drift at 30th Street Station?

AC: When creating my design, I focused on the strong lines of the existing architecture, the verticality and the height of the space, and the spatial symmetry of the main concourse. I spent a lot of time in the station and paid attention to the relationship between motion and sound, and the way both are amplified in a major transit hub. I used resonating shapes and saturated color to communicate movement and energy through and around the frames of the windows, echoing the collective flow and overall energy of people passing through the station.

HSB: It reminds me a little of the Edna Andrade pieces Fanfare, Crescendo, and Finale. Are you familiar with her work? How can the visual connect to the aural?

AC: I am familiar with her work, and although I can’t trace a time when I would have focused on her work for inspiration or influence, I can certainly see parallels between her work and mine. I would characterize the installation at 30th Street Station as “optical art,” which is a term used to describe her paintings. I believe the visual and the aural are much more closely connected than people think. I split my time between music creation and visual art and have been doing so for the past eight years, and I typically do both every day. It’s easy for me to see strong parallels between the two. In my artwork, I use a lot of repetition of shapes and colors. I create a rhythm of those shapes and colors within my composition. I control the flow of the eye around the composition just like a musician uses tempo and dynamics to make a song engaging. You could interpret the colors in terms of frequency, lighter colors being a higher frequency and darker or deeper colors being lower, like a bass sound.

HSB: What’s it like to see your artwork in such an iconic location?

AC: For me, it’s been a huge honor and a little surreal. I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to contribute to such an amazing project, and I’m so grateful to the Curator Debra Simon, of Debra Simon Art Consulting, and her entire team, as well as Amtrak and the Art at Amtrak program for everything they did to make this a success. I grew up just outside Philadelphia and have been coming to 30th Street Station since I was a kid. So it has really been an unreal experience to be able to play a part in impacting the energy of the space with my artwork.

HSB: What’s your take on the Philly public art scene?

AC: Philadelphia is famous for a very active public art scene, and for that I think the city is truly unique. It’s home to so many great muralists and creatives in general, and it’s awesome to see new and interesting murals constantly going up and creative projects being realized that bring the community together. I love living here and being a part of that scene. //

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DESTINATIONS // NEXT STOP: ART BY ADAM CRAWFORD

‘Euphonic & Chromatic Drift’ at 30th Street Station