Infinite Horizon

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s role in providing relief to those in financial distress inspired artist Odili Donald Odita to design this vibrant and dynamic mural for the George C. Young Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Orlando.  According to Odita, the artwork’s title refers to “the idea of the Court’s purpose, which is to settle bankruptcy matters and, in essence, to give hope for new horizons.”  Odita is well known for making artworks that use color, pattern and scale to transform the experiences of architectural spaces.

To create Infinite Horizon, Odita and his team sanded two large bands of chevrons into the lobby’s wood panels, and then painted in overlapping and interlocking ribbons of color.  Odita described the resulting pattern as “somewhat like the up and down movement of ocean waves, a heart-beat or the act of breathing.”  He drew inspiration from textile designs and landscape forms to compose the mural’s kaleidoscopic array of distinctive colors that suggest, for example, the ever-changing pink, magenta and orange hues of sunrises and sunsets, as well as the mercurial blues and grays of the sea and sky.