Walk this way

If you've walked across the Northern Avenue Bridge this month, you've seen Suzanne and Julian. They're avid pedestrians, walking constantly, but they never seem to get across the bridge.

British artist Julian Opie, known for his pared-down, pictographic images, brings Suzanne and Julian to Boston for a year's visit, courtesy of the Institute of Contemporary Art's Vita Brevis Project. ''Julian Walking" and ''Suzanne Walking" are actually a pair of sculptures made of low-power, highly versatile LEDs (light-emitting diodes). Julian, in T-shirt and shorts, saunters. Suzanne throws her shoulders back like a catwalk model and struts -- a gait not usually seen on streets and sidewalks. Both have movement so fluid it's hypnotic, a dream of walking.

They're classic Opie, with clean lines, and circles for heads. In a way that both appeals and unsettles, the artist melds figure with signage. Suzanne and Julian might be large-scale versions of the walk/don't walk signals of tomorrow. Only their placement is bothersome: Set behind fencing along the rim of the bridge so they can be clearly seen from shore, they're at a remove from their audience. That's too bad; Julian and Suzanne are the kind of pedestrians others would want to mingle with.

Institute of Contemporary Art/Vita Brevis Project, Northern Avenue Bridge, through Oct. 31, 2006.

CATE McQUAID