BRAIN WORKs

Artist: Marta Thoma Hall

Marta Thoma Hall’s Brian Works sculpture reflects her close work with the Spartan Keys community, which had prioritized an iconic, “visually dramatic” sculpture to be located in the neighborhood’s Bestor Art Park as one of its top goals in the City’s Strong Neighborhoods Initiative. The Spartan Keys neighborhood is home to many artists and working families; creativity and hard work are at the core of the neighborhood character. The community inspired the concept for the artwork and their input helped shape the vision.  

Brain Works, a major sculpture 28’ x 9’ x 10,’ in size, is designed to be seen throughout the neighborhood and towards the I-280 freeway.  The sculpture includes subtle blue lighting at night, making it recognizable and distinguishable in the night sky. The artwork materials include familiar objects such as bottles and spoons, most of which were contributed by the community. Incorporating these utilitarian objects into artwork is a way of honoring everyday work and activities. For Hall, making art with bottles, objects still discarded as trash, helps exemplify transformation for the public: by coloring the bottles and massing them together, the “trash,” appears more like gems in a stained-glass window of a church.

Brain Works is an abstract vision with symbols of sweat, tears, energy, light, and life celebration. The artwork speaks to children, teens, hard working parents, laborers, professional artists, students, and all people working toward goals and following their dreams.

District: 3

Report a Concern:  (408) 793-4330 or publicart@sanjoseca.gov.

Documents

• Brain Works - Fact Sheet

Features

• (Public Art) Parks
• (Public Art) Permanent Artworks