wade and leta's colorful shapes & patterns spin on rooftop in china

stop, listen, look enlivens chengu rooftop

Wade and Leta enliven China’s urban skyline with an eclectic constellation of shapes, colors, and patterns spinning in tune with the rhythms of daily life. The colorful kinetic sculpture called Stop, Listen, Look, is seven meters tall and sits on top of the roof of a commercial district in Chengdu, working as a platform for public interaction shaped by the city’s energy and urban and cultural symbolism.

It is a responsive structure with horn-like forms extending outward, catching wind, transmitting sound, and creating shifting patterns of shadow and light. Motorized and wind-driven elements keep the structure in constant motion, producing an ambient choreography that mirrors the movement below on the city streets. The installation also features two seesaws and an embedded MIDI sound controller, allowing visitors to modulate the surrounding soundscape through touch and movement.

all images courtesy of Wade and Leta

wade and leta’s kinetic installation moves with daily rhythms

While the Brooklyn-based duo has long been making ‘music for the eyes’, working on playful installations that transform outdoor environments, this large-scale installation marks the first time they have realized a public outdoor artwork of this size in China. Stop, Listen, Look’s visual language draws directly from Chengdu’s architectural and cultural forms. Circular motifs — referencing the city’s radial layout, Anshun Bridge, and the iconic Golden Sun Bird — appear throughout the work, contrasting with the sharp geometries that characterize Wade and Leta’s sculptural vocabulary. Rendered in vibrant colors and patterns, the shapes also soften the urban impact of the surrounding glass volumes, presenting a deliberate juxtaposition of ancient symbology and contemporary abstraction.

To shape the acoustic experience, Wade and Leta collaborated with British music producer Eric Lau, who created an evolving audio track rooted in field recordings taken from around Chengdu. Market sounds, ambient chatter, and tonal fragments of everyday life come together and surround visitors as they walk through or take a moment of rest. These layers are complemented by a second contribution: an eight-tone installation by local artist Huang Jin that threads through the site and further localizes the auditory palette.

Wade and Leta complete Stop, Listen, Look