Variations on the Theme of City Narration

The mural Variations on the Theme of City Narration by artist Jared Bader is located in Center City Philadelphia. The project, designed for a parking garage at 9th and Sansom Streets, was created to fit over 16 panels; eleven facing Sansom Street and 5 facing 9th Street. Each vinyl panel is monochromatic with several layers of photographs and historical lithographs and etchings overlapping one another. In addition, a Philadelphia cityscape moves from one panel to the next, in order to make all the panels work as a whole.

As the street scene moves across the panels, modern photographs of Philadelphia are mixed into the historical scene. Images are layered over top of the street scene with varying levels of translucence, lending an effect of images being applied using a photo-silkscreen technique. Each panel is also designed to move vertically from darker to lighter, an effect influenced by oriental landscape paintings. Benjamin Franklin is also portrayed overlapping all of the panels. Ben Franklin was chosen because there is a theme inside the parking garage of Franklin’s seven great virtues.