The Seaholm Water Intake Facility is a site in transition: profoundly empty and striking in its simplicity as architecture remains all that is left of a once-integral part of Austin’s public works. The space and its role our future are being actively reimagined, yet it remains a resolutely historic artifact at the intersection of the rapidly-developed downtown and the beloved waterfront Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail. It is this multilayered in-between that “Sun Poem” takes place. It offers one year of a different kind of emptiness: two inverse hues of plasma illumination on the north and south walls fill the space with light, granting color to the air and form to light in an ever-shifting gradient as daylight turns to blue turns to red and back again. Emphasizing the vitrine-like nature of the building, “Sun Poem” encourages slow, thoughtful observation of light and aims to expand upon the original goals of the spatial designers (Burns & McDonnell) to celebrate the importance of beauty and humanness in our civic infrastructure. It should also be noted that the work of its name sake, Walter E. Seaholm, against the privitization of Austin’s electricity represents a significant and proud legacy of democratically-focused power production in our city.

A big thank you thank you to the Austin History Center for their incredibly helpful staff and resources during the research phase, as well as a thank you to Kenneth at Neon Sign Source!.

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