Artist: Ellen Harvey
Title: Atlantis, 2019
Medium: Etched mirror glass
Location: Miami Beach Convention Center, Grand Ballroom Lobby
Based on a full-size hand-painted design, Atlantis is directly inspired by Miami Beach’s unique connection to the many bodies of water that constitute the larger Florida ecosystem. Visitors to the Miami Beach Convention Center see themselves reflected in a dark watery 1,000 sq. ft. hand-painted design sand-blasted into mouth-blown glass, filled with ceramic melting color, laminated to glass mirror with a white painting of a diagonal satellite view of Florida reaching from the Atlantic Ocean through the great watershed of the Everglades to the Gulf of Mexico. As the light changes, the image appears to float above and then be subsumed by the watery reflections, mimicking the intimate relationship between the city and the water table. The mirror is divided into two sections so that visitors enter the new Grand Ballroom at the intersection between the man-made and the natural landscape — at the border between the Everglades National Park and the outskirts of Miami. Originally inspired by a visit to the Everglades with the Everglades Foundation and Creative Time, Atlantis allows visitors to situate themselves within the larger landscape, providing a poignant and thought-provoking overview of the natural beauties that make Miami Beach such a seductive destination.
