The Loop Gets A Taste Of The Rainbow With Color Jam

By Kim Bellware in Arts & Entertainment on May 31, 2012 1:30PM

In the Loop, pink, purple, blue, green, red, orange are colors typically associated with "L" trains, not skyscrapers (well, except that one). After the week-long installation of artist Jessica Stockholder's new public artwork Color Jam is complete, the intersection of State and Adams will have more colors than the State/Lake and Clark/Lake CTA stops.

Color Jam, the third installment in The Chicago Loop Alliance's Art Loop public art initiative, is both the newest public artwork and the largest ever in Chicago. Prior to Color Jam, Art Loop draped the north wall of the Stevens Building (17 N State) in Kay Rosen's GO DO GOOD installation; in the summer of 2010, passers-by gawked at Tony Tasset's three-story EYE on State.

Deemed the largest contiguous vinyl project in the U.S, the art work is made up of 76,000 square feet of colored vinyl (enough to wrap more 130 city buses) and will cover portions of the streets, sidewalk and sides of buildings at the State and Adams intersection. Stockholder, who chairs University of Chicago's Department of Visual Arts, has said the installation creates the sensation of "walking through an animated film."

Color Jam is up until September 30, with an official "opening" on June 5 at 10 a.m. ABC7 has a video of the installation, which started Wednesday:

You can also watch the live feed as the piece is installed (and after it's finished) via The Chicago Loop Alliance:

Live video for mobile from Ustream

Color Jam is on display from June 5 to September 30 at State and Adams