Noted British lighting designer Bruce Munro and six assistants worked over three days to install the 6.000 acrylic stems that make up the “Field of Light” sculpture at the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK. The field of bulbs covers 1200 square meters, and lights up the entire grass roof of the Eden Project’s visitor center. The result is magical—like a glowing garden from outerspace.
Mark Pickthall
Jenny Holzer’s “For the Guggenheim”
Through December 31, 2008, Jenny Holzer’s
“For the Guggenheim” will project on the side of the Manhattan museum. To mark the new restoration of the structure, the Guggenheim commissioned
Holzer (one of the U.S. most celebrated projection artists) to immortalize the building. Her own words and poems suffuse the side of the great white spiral, making the building itself a conversation piece on the eve of its 50th anniversary celebration in 2009.
Britisth artist Peter Freeman has created dozens of light installations all across the UK, “creating a positive uplifting ambience in the built environment.” In Blackpool, he created “ Glamrocks,” a permanent light sculpture inspired by beach pebbles, sitting on the South Shore promenade.
Courtesy of Peter Freeman
Most recently, Peter Freeman created “ Reflexive,” which bathes the foyer of the Craft Study Center in Farnham in neon LED light.
Courtesy of Peter Freeman
Barcelona-born sculptor Jaume Plensa has created many high-profile light works, including the captivating Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millenium Park and installations at Barcelona’s Joan Miro foundation and the Jeu de Paume in Paris. His latest work, “ Breathing,” adorns the BBC Broadcasting Building in London and commemorates journalists who have died in action. Inspired by the All Soul’s Church spire, and at night, a single beam of light shoots into the sky, connecting the lit cone with the atmosphere.
AFP/Getty
Nobuho Nagasawa’s “Water Weaving Light Cycle”
Inside Seattle’s City Hall,
Nagasawa’s permanent installation pulsates with blue light at night (during the day, it is a clear glass net sculpture). The artist writes, “made of optical fiber and woven in Kyoto (Japan) by traditional kimono weavers, [the piece] emulates cascading water and the rhythms of waves breaking on the shores of nearby Puget Sound.”
The mother of all light installations will open at New York’s Whitney Museum in March 2009. Spanning 15 years of Jenny Holzer’s career, it will be her largest retrospective. We’re sure all projectors in the tri-borough area are currently being secured for the event.
Vassilij Gureev
Through January 1, 2009, the annual Kaleidoscope Light Show (presented this year by Sharp) will grace Manhattan’s most famous train station every half hour between 11am and 9pm. Wintry images and “the sounds of the season” run for seven minutes, delighting holiday commuters—just don’t get stuck in the station for long. Once is magical, twice is enough.
Louisiana-born rtist Sonnier explores the connections between “neon and architecture,” and his latest work takes advantage of the glass lobby of Park Avenue’s Lever House Restaurant. Besides his eerie glowing columns in New York. Sonnier is currently working on commissions for the Kansas City International Airport and the Caltrans Highway Department in Los Angeles.
The most famous light show of all has succumbed to the global energy crisis—this year, for the first time ever, Parisian officials decided to shorten the tower’s nightly twinkle show from ten minutes every hour after dusk to half the time—in the name of sustainability. Still, the lights will continue to go on, and while many Parisians have come to resent the glowing distraction, it’s still the most romantic sight imaginable for visitors.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
The new ice skating rink at New York’s Museum of Natural History features a cheery sight—a 17-foot tall twinkling polar bear in the center of the ice. Along with drapes and drapes of lights in the trees of the Terrace and a hot cocoa bar, it’s one of the best places to spend a Manhattan winter evening—through March 1.
Courtesy of AMNHD
