Aurora
Simons, West Edmonton Mall
Edmonton, Alberta, CAN - 2013
The opening of Simons at the West Edmonton Mall marks the esteemed retailer’s first location outside the province of Quebec. With seven unique locations and a 170 year history to its name, Simons is well recognized as a purveyor and supporter of Canadian fashion, art and architecture.
Simons has commissioned Philip Beesley to create a major permanent installation for the interior of their new 115,000 square foot West Edmonton Mall location. Aurora takes its inspiration from the aurora borealis, with its natural plays of light and dance of elements dependent on chance interactions and energetic collisions. Beesley has envisioned a large scale installation that enlivens the human experience at the heart of these exchanges, and offers the public its own interaction within an ever-adapting sculptural architecture.
The sculpture is composed of hundreds of thousands of individual components including laser-cut stainless steel, acrylic and mylar, densely massed glass vessels, and custom computer-controlled circuitry. Aurora will create an ethereal overhead canopy designed to gently swell and ripple in an ocean of intelligent LED lights that responds to viewers gathering below.