Loudoun Gateway

Exterior entry plaza.

Byde your time, 2020
Jacqueline Metz and Nancy Chew
Granite (white, black, grey, and brown granite)
35.75' x 43.25'

Loudon Gateway-Byde Your Time
Photo by Joseph Romeo

The stone labyrinth, fully integrated into the exterior entry plaza, is surrounded by five stone silhouettes of herons in flight. The artwork is a visual and experiential expression of the nature of journey and destination, echoing the location of the station on the Silver Line that links the Washington Dulles International Airport to Washington, DC, and Loudoun County. The title is a reference to the motto of Loudoun County, "I byde my time" and integrates images of herons which are part of local folklore. Byde your time can be a dramatic backdrop, a playful shared experience, or one of contemplation: it suggests the paths we navigate through the world, the choreography of movement, and is layered with local references, linking the archetypal to the familiar.

Jacqueline Metz and Nancy Chew are visual artists who have worked collaboratively since 1997. They met at the University of British Columbia in 1986 and found they had common interests in architecture, public space, landscape, and cultural thought. These diverse experiences and influences come together to create an art practice that is conceptual yet grounded in place - a practice centered on the public realm, an exploration of place and perception.

Byde your time was commissioned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.