Lux Lucis, Dichroic glass, 2016
This piece was created for FRAGMENTED IDENTITIES, the It’s LIQUID International Art and Architecture Festival, Venice 2016. Lux Lucis was exibited at The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and the Balsaliee School of International Affairs, which is a visionary place. At the heart of this vision is the meeting of people and ideas: the intersection of experience, knowledge and innovative thinking to find solutions to the world’s challenges, to shed light on the dark issues facing humanity. Lux Lucis (Latin for light shining, bright or clear) responds to light from outside and within as a metaphor for bringing insight and clarity to these issues. The two rows of columns refer to the traditional colonnade around college courtyards while reinterpreting that tradition with materials and form that reflect the latest technology to blend a respect for the past with the dynamism of the future.
Lux Lucis responds to the vertical elements in the architecture and the transparent surfaces that allow for flow from outside to inside. Beams of light and color move across the surfaces, reflecting and penetrating the glass walls of the courtyard and into the lobbies. At times the columns almost disappear and at other times they reflect the surroundings and then with a slight shift they become luminous beacons. This elusive, ever changing presence reflects the elusive nature of the challenges that face our complex world.These problems are difficult to grasp, requiring new perspectives and vantage points much as Lux Lucis must be seen from all sides and observed with attention. The multifaceted, multi-coloured combinations and the almost endless variety in the way the light projections and reflections play around the area are metaphors for the complexity of the multifaceted world addressed by the work done at the school. The columns suggest the many individuals or entities that stand separately, but whose impact is felt beyond their boundaries. Lux Lucis is a metaphor for our interconnection and the network among individuals within a larger world community.
The artwork honors the sense of this place as a quiet sanctuary, a refuge for reflection, by subtly existing mostly as light rather than being perceived as objects with weight and mass. Lux Lucis suggests a “light touch” on the planet both visually and literally. Glass is a ‘green’ material and the LED lighting uses very little electricity. The light is directed down, not contributing to light pollution at night. A light sensor turns on the evening lighting so that no electricity is wasted when the lights would not be seen.
