‘Dream Catcher’ – the Transparent, Moving Sculpture on Sunset Boulevard

West Hollywood’s largest Urban Art Program’s public art project, “Dream Catcher,” the largest public art project of the City of West Hollywood’s urban art program, now is live at the recently opened Jeremy Hotel on Sunset Boulevard.

The moving transparent sculpture is the work of Janet Echelman, and is suspended between the two hotel towers. It is 90 feet high and is composed of colored fiber netting that transforms the open space between the buildings into a dynamic art installation. The gently moving, transparent sculpture comes alive at night with an LED lighting design that creates an illuminated visual experience not only within the hotel’s outdoor space, but also from Sunset Boulevard and locations south of the site 8490 Sunset Blvd. site.

Echelman’s inspiration stems the idea of dreaming guests asleep in the two hotel buildings that cradle and support the sculpture. Her research into brainwave activity during periods of dreaming provided a data set from which she extrapolated the forms that constitute the artwork. Dreams are not only private experiences, but are social and cultural ones. An announcement of the installation say that “Dream Catcher is an apt title not only for how it speaks to the guests of the hotel, but to the larger region and its identity as a global epicenter for entertainment and media — a place where dreams are invented and pursued.”

Echelman is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Harvard University Loeb Fellowship, a Fulbright Lectureship and the Aspen Institute Crown Fellowship. Her TED talk, “Taking Imagination Seriously,” has been translated into 34 languages. Her works have been exhibited nationwide, including in Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco, and internationally, including London, Vancouver, Amsterdam, Sydney and Singapore.

The mission of West Hollywood’s Urban Art Program is to support and nurturw the arts as well as promote excellence in urban design. The Urban Art Policy, codified in the West Hollywood Municipal Code, requires developers of certain projects to contribute 1% of the project cost to public art. Developers can choose to place an on-site artwork or contribute the amount to the City’s Public Art and Beautification Fund which finances the temporary public art program in the City.