“Resilient Light” was inspired by the adobe home of Darrel Dupa, built in 1871. It still stands in South Phoenix. Duppa is credited with naming the City of Phoenix. He envisioned a new city rising from the ashes of the Hohokam Civilization, which originally channeled water to the valley below South Mountain. The Hohokam vanished around 1400 CE, and Darrel hoped that life would again be breathed into this desert, echoing the mythical bird’s rebirth. Isaac Caruso was commissioned by Valley Metro to create a three-dimensional piece that would sit a stone’s throw away from the site, along their Southern Light Rail Extension.
Caruso met with community leaders and researched South Phoenix’s rich history to develop this structure. Caruso pushed Darrel Dupa’s concept of a “Phoenix” forward with the design of a sculpture that would feel iconic. To accentuate the notion of fire, he proposed elements of internal illumination that would make the bird glow at night like a hot ember. This composition was presented to a board of stakeholders, comprising people who lived near the Light Rail Extension and Arts Administrators from Valley Metro. They unanimously approved the artist’s CAD renderings. The artist selected an engineer and fabricator based in South Phoenix to construct Caruso’s translucent fiberglass sculpture. The artist would regularly check the construction’s progress and keep Valley Metro updated. Before the sculpture’s unveiling, Caruso met with members of the community to host a paint event and discuss his practice. ABC15, the Arizona Republic, Fox10, Welcome to Arizona, and 3TV have profiled the piece.
