Louisa, VA
A 48-foot tall sundial painted inside a silo in a country club in Louisa, VA.
A 48-foot tall sundial painted inside a silo in a country club in Louisa, VA.
In September of 2006 (date may be inexact) the French army installed 600 one meter square reflective panels in the shape of Roman numerals on the sands of Mont Saint-Michel, a small rocky island off the coast of Normandy. The island’s 150-foot abbey spire cast a shadow three quarters of a mile long that swept across the numerals. Wow. Video of the installation, a thorough blog post in English, and the website for the project, in French.
The oldest stained glass sundial, made in the far south of Germany in 1529. Now resides in the Alder Planetarium and Museum in Chicago. For further info: a huge archive of stained glass sundials through history.
From greenmuseum.org: “One of the early pioneers of both the environmental art movement and Conceptual art, Agnes Denes brings her wide ranging interests in the physical and social sciences, mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, poetry and music to her delicate drawings, books and monumental artworks around the globe.”
She has used sundials directly in her work at least twice, listed below, and alluded to sundial-timekeeping ideas lots of times throughout her work.
1990
“Circle of Megaliths with Sundial,” Commissioned by the International Center for the Preservation of Wild Animals, a 10,000 acre wildlife preserve and research center in Columbus, Ohio. (in process)
1988
“The Human Argument in Steel & Crystal with Sundial,” University City Science Center, Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia, Penn. (finalist)
Tree Mountain – A Living Time Capsule – 11,000 Trees – 11,000 People – 400 Years, Finland, planted in 1996. A massive earthwork and artificial mountain, this land reclamation project involved planting 11,000 trees in an intricate mathematical pattern derived from a combination of the golden section and a sunflower/pineapple pattern designed by the artist. More on this project here. More on Agnes Denes at the greenmuseum.org site and widely on the www.
Santiago Calatrava, architect, sculptor. (also see Turtle Bridge)
Barcelona, Spain, 1991
Calatrava’s original 130 meter communications tower was built for Telefónica in the heart of the 1992 Olympic site, to carry coverage of the Games. Aside from its distinctive structural form, the tower is innovative in enclosing the circular platform of microwave dishes. The overall form of the tower is based on a Calatrava sketch of a kneeling figure making an offering. The base on which the figure ‘kneels’ is covered in broken glazed tiles in recognition of Gaudi (though with more restrained colors). The orientation of the tower means that the shadow of the central needle on the circular platform acts as a sundial. (reference here)
Kazuo Matsubayashi created this large public sculpture in 1993 in Salt Lake City, Utah. For complete info on symbolism and reading the sundial, check this site.
From the press release:
“New York, New York, New York is an interactive, multimedia installation. It is a continuation of Flux Factory’s interest in urban landscapes and takes inspiration from the Panorama, Robert Moses’ scale model of New York City in the Queens Museum of Art. Members of the Flux Factory art collective will work in collaboration with over 100 artists from all five boroughs and around the world to re-imagine the public and private spaces of New York.
Each artist will contribute a building, a landmark, a street, an avenue, a block, a park, a neighborhood, an expressway, a bridge, an island, an airport—one or several elements of the urban environment. All of these individual works will be combined to produce a cohesive yet chaotic installation, a multimedia, scale-model of the city. Instead of being an exact replica to scale of the city of New York, this project offers a mental map, a replica of an imaginary New York. The goal of the show is to explore the architectural and conceptual elements of everyday space. It is an investigation into the collective unconscious of the cultural capital of the planet: The sum of all of New York’s potential exposed in a great experiment in psychogeography.”
LIC Sundial model installed in Queens-panorama-area…and other installation views around NYNYNY:
After Tomorrow – in the lower Manhattan financial district by Momoyo Torimitsu
Cretaceous under Brooklyn (note to self to find artist name and piece title)
The Brooklyn Bridge with the Brooklyn Bridge
More info:
Interview with Bill Nye, Science Guy
Uta Barth’s photographs are on view at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in an exhibit titled ‘Sundial’.
From the press release:
“Conceived as pictures of light, the photographs that make up Sundial trace the effect of the sun’s movement as natural light falls and moves across the interior spaces of the artist’s home over the course of the day, on different days throughout the year. These photographs were primarily taken at dusk, when the last play of light begins to erase itself and the illuminated world is put to rest, when objects are caught in beams of light and cast their quickly fading shadows on walls, ceilings and floors. The resulting images are still, silent and slow. They are occasionally interrupted by the drifting optical afterimages produced by prolonged staring into the light, inverted visions our eyes can see, yet the camera cannot, a place where logic begins to slip and unexpected associations are made.”
Excerpt from Saginaw Valley Sate U website, about a Summer solstice event:
Nancy Holt (b. 1938) has created more than 30 monumental site-specific public sculptures around the U.S. and beyond since 1970. Most orient the viewer to the sun, moon, and stars, enhancing our perception of nature and ultimately of ourselves. Some are in remote desert locations where the arduous journey to view the sculpture becomes part of the art. She has also made films and videos. In addition, she has published extensively about her art, other contemporary site-specific sculptures, and Earthworks or Land Art (i.e., generally colossal alterations or additions to the environment, some of which reclaim pit mines, landfills, or other areas devastated by industrialization).
Sun Tunnels – more info
Sky Mound, Meadowlands of Hackensack, New Jersey, more info