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Field Pattern by Tsehai Johnson
Photo CreditPhoto courtesy of McKay Lodge Fine Arts Conservation Laboratory, Inc.
Photo CaptionField Pattern: Field Pattern #1
Field Pattern
Photo CreditPhoto courtesy of McKay Lodge Fine Arts Conservation Laboratory, Inc.
Photo CaptionField Pattern: Field Pattern #1

Field Pattern

Artist
Year2013
Classification sculpture
Medium glazed slip-cast porcelain
DimensionsField Pattern #1: 68 × 308 in. (172.7 × 782.3 cm)
Field Pattern #2: 93 × 247 in. (236.2 × 627.4 cm)
Field Pattern #3: 93 × 245 in. (236.2 × 622.3 cm)
Credits Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Location



  • Tsehai Johnson used an industrial slip-casting technique to create the 1,700 porcelain components of Field Pattern, a site-specific artwork that she designed for three separate walls of the remodeled Byron Rogers Federal Building.  Inspired both by the distinctive lozenge shape of the building’s original 1965 floor plan and by other ornamental patterns that have been used for centuries, Field Pattern possesses a compositional stability that results from its grids of repeating elements, yet also an optical fluidity thanks to its dynamic arrangements of shapes and colors.



    Johnson’s art combines the three-dimensional qualities of sculpture, such as volume and scale, with the optical aspects of painting with shifting colors and changing shapes.