Warhol Fire Hydrants Project: "Sundae Morning"
About the Orangeflux / Tre2 Creative Warhol Fire Hydrant project
Title: "Sundae Morning"
Our fire hydrant design, part of the City of Wheaton's Wheaton Warhol: Pop Art Fire Hydrants Project, is based off of the banana art that Andy Warhol had done for the cover of the Velvet Underground album. The banana, in the original piece, was interactive. People could peel back the banana, and they would be surprised to see it in vibrant pink. We’ve used that as a jumping-off point for our fire hydrant.
Imagine if someone had taken an empty banana peel and set it on top of the hydrant, with the peels draping down over it, down to the ground. That's what we visualized. The challenge was to work with the shape of the hydrant, turning and manipulating the peel to work in 3D, in and around the fire hydrant’s iconic parts. The shocking pink "base" of the hydrant recalls what would have been the banana in the original piece. The very top part of the hydrant is painted dark, representing the banana’s bottom nub. We have indicated the banana's stem at the base, near the street. Warhol's style of solid/silk-screen-like outlines and shading in stark black are used to make the whole piece "pop."
The title, "Sundae Morning," was inspired by the Velvet Underground song, "Sunday Morning," from the same album. We changed it to "Sundae" to evoke the ice cream sundae. This is an homage to Wheaton, which is known to have its fair share of ice cream establishments. It is also just fun, colorful (in true Warhol style) and family friendly—like Wheaton. Our goal was to make a piece that was approachable for families/kids and adults alike.
To see the hydrant in person, visit the Downtown Wheaton post office. It's the one in front of the post office.
This project was a group effort by the following two design firms:
