The Contemporary Art Gallery presents WAVES by Vancouver based and French born artist Nicolas Sassoon, the second commission for the Yaletown-Roundhouse Station as part of our offsite programme. Presented in partnership with Canada Line Public Art Program - IntransitBC.

The work forms part of Sassoon's ongoing investigations using Moiré patterns - a visual blur inadvertently discovered by Swiss photographer Ernst Moiré in the late 1800s - whereby two images are overlaid to create a third ‘plane'. The resulting optical effect causes the eye to see movement where there is none.

The new commission at the Yaletown-Roundhouse Station is formed by the layering of a multi-coloured pixelated background, placed behind a symmetrical pattern of vertical, curved black lines. With no central focal point the graphic mural is activated by the movement of the viewer as commuters pass by going about their daily routine. Sassoon's patterns are tied to the landscape, their vibrating effect evocative of elements found in nature, a field of raking grass, clouds sweeping across an otherwise clear sky, the diagonal cascade of torrential rain or the soft ripples on an otherwise calm ocean