Color shifts across the surface as visitors approach the entrance, dissolving from image into atmosphere and back again. From one angle the artwork reads as an abstract chromatic field; from another, fragments of landscape emerge through layers of translucent color. Movement and changing vantage points continuously reshape the work, turning arrival into a perceptual experience.

Afterimage is a site-specific public artwork commissioned by Simon for the renovation and expansion of Brea Mall in Southern California. Installed at the main entrance of the new addition, the work draws from the Brea Hills and local flora, translating regional imagery into a layered system of color, depth, and light.

The installation is composed of UV-printed acrylic fins mounted within a custom aluminum framework. Acting as three-dimensional pixels, each element varies in color, height, and depth according to the brightness and hue of a composite image generated from photographs of the surrounding landscape. The resulting surface operates simultaneously as representation and abstraction, preserving traces of the local environment while dissolving them into a shifting field of color.

During the day, sunlight passes through the translucent acrylic fins and casts shifting color onto the neutral wall surface behind the work. Because the installation is experienced primarily in motion—by pedestrians approaching the entrance and by vehicles moving along the adjacent roadway—it also operates as a lenticular field. Overlapping layers of translucent color recombine differently from changing angles, causing the image to fluctuate between clarity and dissolution as visitors move past the work.

At night, programmable linear LED fixtures embedded within the aluminum structure illuminate the acrylic fins from within, transforming the surface into a dynamic field of animated light and color. Through illumination, abstraction, and motion, Afterimage operates simultaneously as image, atmosphere, and landmark—connecting the mall expansion to its surrounding environment while creating a luminous beacon at the entrance.