Now arriving: faculty art

Sacramento State professor Joan Moment’s glass tessera mosaic lies in the path to the airport tram on the third floor of the Sacramento International Airport’s new Terminal B. Travelers can get a glance of her vision titled “A Fragment of the Universe” as they come and go from the gates and shops.

Sacramento State professor Joan Moment’s glass tessera mosaic lies in the path to the airport tram on the third floor of the Sacramento International Airport’s new Terminal B. Travelers can get a glance of her vision titled “A Fragment of the Universe” as they come and go from the gates and shops.

Benjamin Dewey
November 9, 2011

After 34 years of service to Sacramento State, retired art professor Joan Moment has once again left her mark on the area – this time with an 18 x 12 foot glass mosaic set into the floor of the new airport terminal at Sacramento International Airport.

“My intent is to explore the beauty and strangeness of natural forms – to evoke a sense of place, time and fragility,” Moment said. “I hope to achieve visual metaphors of immateriality and the temporal nature of everything. Nature is continually alive and in a constant state of flux.”

Moment’s piece, “A Fragment of the Universe,” presents circular forms representing the ocean surfaces, collections of stars, galaxies, cosmic nets, air and planetary forms. Her piece, along with six others, can be seen without going through security.

Moment was one of 12 artists chosen to design public pieces showcased in the new terminal, along with work from artists Lawrence Argent, who designed a 56-foot-long, 19-foot-tall suspended red rabbit called “Leap” and Suzanne Adan, who also did a mosaic titled “Flying Colors.”

“I am very fascinated with how the work actually begins to live in public and what the surprises are,” said Art in Public Places Director Shelly Willis. “With Joan’s piece, a group of 20 kids walked up, on a tour, and they all just threw themselves on the ground and then another two groups came and did the same thing.”

Willis said it must have been because Moment’s piece looks like water and “you just want to get down there and touch it.”

“The original painting I submitted was way too complicated,” Moment said. “There was just a lot of visual information, so I was asked to simplify it. I began working with the theme of planets and the universe in the ‘80s, then I picked it back up in 2003 and have been working with planetary images ever since.”

“A Fragment of the Universe” was assembled in Germany and took a team of three six months to complete the fabrication. After the piece was complete it was cut into 150 sections and then shipped to Sacramento where it took two more men 10 days, working full-time, to install the piece.

“Joan Moment is a very important artist in the country,” Willis said. “She taught at Sac State for years, has exhibited all over the country and is a great artist.”

The theme behind most of the art showcased, as well as the architecture, of the building revolves around the idea of bringing the outside in.

“Once the artists were selected, they went through an orientation which included a meeting with the architect, so the artists understand the design principals of the building,” Willis said.

The new terminal’s structure is transparent in nature and consists of steel beams that mimic a tree canopy. The redwood detailing in the ceiling was salvaged from an old bridge, with the anticipation of the new terminal being built.

“In some ways I think art has become more elite with museums and galleries,” Willis said. “I am more comfortable, excited and passionate about working outside of that.”

Benjamin Dewey can be reached at [email protected].