SpY's steel and glass ORB installation reflects fragments of urban montreal

orb’s reflections bridge art and urban space

Following its debut at the majestic Pyramids of Giza in 2022, SpY’s ORB installation lands at Place des Arts, Montreal. The Madrid-based artist combines formal simplicity with a deep symbolic charge, reinterpreting a familiar, everyday object — the convex traffic mirror. Transforming this element into an artistic form, the work is shaped as a large, chrome steel and glass orb with a vast spherical form and specular surface.

The sculpture’s mirrors reflect fragments of the environment and those who observe it, evolving with the passage of day and night. This continuous interaction creates a dynamic experience that invites a profound reflection on the relationship between art, urban space, and its inhabitants.

all images by Ruben P Bescos

spy’s spherical installation takes to montreal 

Initially conceived for the second edition of the Art D’Égypte group exhibition Forever Is Now, SpY’s ORB presents the challenge of creating a harmonious dialogue with one of the most emblematic historical environments in the world. The choice of Montreal’s Place des Arts reinforces the work’s universal character, allowing the artist to establish a meaningful link with a culturally rich and socially symbolic environment of the city. Multiplied and arranged in a unique spherical pattern, this familiar and often overlooked urban component takes on a new life as part of an intervention that surprises the viewer.

ORB’s reflections bridge art and urban space

conceived as a large chrome steel ball

SpY combines formal simplicity with a deep symbolic charge

the installation reinterprets a familiar, everyday object — the convex traffic mirror

a vast spherical form and specular surface

the work invites a profound reflection on the relationship between art, urban space, and its inhabitants

the work evolves with the passage of day and night

located at Montreal’s Place des Arts

the work was first exhibited in Egypt in 2022 at Forever Is Now

project info:

name: ORB
designer: SpY | @spyurbanart

curator: Mural Festival

collaborator: Place des Arts

location: Montreal, Canada

photographer: Ruben P Bescos

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: ravail khan | designboom