A Conversation with Phillip K. Smith III
TRI-HEX-CIRC is a vertical, painted steel sculpture, installed May 31 at north Scottsdale’s Raintree Drive and Hayden Road roundabout. It geometrically transforms from a circle at its base to a hexagon in the middle and, finally, to a triangle at the top as it lifts more than 50 feet, engaging the ever-changing desert light and expansive sky.
It’s the creation of artist Phillip K. Smith III, who works with light, space, and form to create elementally pure, transformational projects that are site-specific and memorable. His practice fuses the disciplines of art, architecture, and design.
To commemorate the newest addition to the Scottsdale Public Art Permanent Collection, Scottsdale Arts interviewed the artist about his work and practice. Scottsdale Public Art is a part of the nonprofit Scottsdale Arts.
Scottsdale Arts: TRI-HEX-CIRC is a project you started many years ago. Your career has evolved since then. Is this work a step back in time to earlier in your career or has it evolved along with you?
Phillip K. Smith III: I’m a believer that all projects happen when they are supposed to happen—both when they are conceived and when they are actually fabricated and brought into reality. I was originally commissioned for this project back in 2014. In a short period of time, I developed the artwork concept and had the project fully structurally engineered and integrated into the overall landscape and street plan for the site in north Scottsdale. Then, as infrastructure projects tend to do, there are ups and downs and a good bit of waiting. In this case, it was about ten years. Even with this time differential, I am as excited about the project now as I was in 2014.
As a result of this project shifting to fabrication and installation, I’ve started to revisit several earlier ideas in my studio and am working on a whole new series of COR-TEN steel sculptures that engage with the movement of the sun and use light and shadow as their primary medium—just like TRI-HEX-CIRC.
SA: The artwork’s location is a prominent one along a busy corridor—a popular route for both shoppers and commuting workers. What do you hope your piece brings to these regular travelers, many of whom might circle it up to ten times a week on their commutes?
PKS3: First of all, I hope that TRI-HEX-CIRC becomes a visual icon for this part of north Scottsdale—a feeling that you know where you are when you see it. Secondly, because the artwork radically changes depending on the location of the sun, I hope that people will see something different in the sculpture every time they are confronted by it. Connecting back to the simplicity of the movement of the sun and identifying how nature affects us all daily is to acknowledge certain simple truths that I hope will bring about a sense of calm and unity.
SA: Your resume is vast, including everything from Coachella activations to Italian high fashion backdrops to experiential installations in museums, like your recent Three Parallels at SMoCA. What do large-scale public artworks like this bring to the mix for you personally?
PKS3: I love interacting with public spaces that do not typically identify as traditional art locations. There’s an exciting disruption that happens in the decision to exhibit art outside of the white walls of a gallery or museum. Art in the public realm is free, open to the public, and has the ability to transform the public’s perception of spaces that have become “normal.” Inserting a 50-foot-tall light and shadow sculpture in the middle of a roundabout in this retail/light industrial part of the city changes people’s perception about art and what’s possible in their own lives. It is art at the scale of architecture. For me, inserting art into public locales is a simple act of sharing beauty—the kind of beauty that makes you curious and wanting to experience it again and again.
SA: You are known for your work with light. How does the light speak to you through TRI-HEX-CIRC?
PKS3: I could say that TRI-HEX-CIRC is built entirely of steel, but it’s truer to say that it is built of light and shadow. The white surface of the sculpture and the extending gaps between each angled “layer” allow the beautiful desert light of Scottsdale to enter into the work. We know about the beauty of the light of the desert, but the sculpture really presents that light. For me, that is the site-specific nature of this sculpture—it uses the specific light of Scottsdale as its core foundation. The light is the heartbeat of the artwork that keeps it shifting and moving all day long and into the night.
SA: With TRI-HEX-CIRC now installed, what other notable projects are you currently working on?
PKS3: There’s always a solid selection of various projects at my studio at all different scales. I just recently completed a massive installation in Sardinia, Italy, called Nora Mirage, that’s composed of eleven reflective monoliths, all 20-feet high and tilted at 10 degrees, across the Nora archeological site. The project was commissioned by Dolce & Gabbana for their Alta Moda show and will be on view until October 1, 2024. Closer to home in Palm Springs, I’m working on a light and reflection installation that is integrated into the architecture of William Cody’s family home, dubbed Cody’s Cody. The installation will merge art with architecture and architecture with art. It will be on view from February 13 to April 13, 2025. I’m also currently heavily immersed in intense fabrication on first pieces in several new series of works that will be on view at my studio as of early February next year—think: animated light painted on a reflective surface. More to come!
Back to Immerse home.
CONNECTIONS: Spark | Amplify | Inspire