American sculptor Dan Corson created the Empyrean Passage sculpture to mark the boundary between West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, California.
The sculpture consists of a spiral of electroluminescent lighting suspended over the pavement. Black dashes on the interior create an optical illusion, altering the viewer’s perception of the colour of the sky at certain times of the day.
Here’s some text about the project from Corson:
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Empyrean Passage, West Hollywood CA
Empyrean Passage is reminiscent of both a theoretical black hole and portal into the celestial worlds. Empyrean (notice the pyre in the word) is the final and fiery level of heaven as depicted by Dante.
The form is constructed like a giant hoop skirt and gracefully moves in the wind, creating a gossamer lighting effect overhead. While this project is an oculus to the heavens, more focus is usually paid to more terrestrial stars in this neighbourhood.
This project utilises extremely “green” electroluminescent lighting. The entire sculpture consumes less electricity than a household nightlight and operates on a photo cell.
Empyrean Passage was created as a “entrance gateway” to the City of West Hollywood leaving Beverly Hills.
Dimensions: 20′x20′x23′ on 45′ tall poles.
Materials: aluminium, paint, vinyl, electroluminescent tape.
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Posted by Rose Etherington
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 8:46 am and is filed under Design, all.
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February 5th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Looks nice, but why is the attention directed upwards instead to the transition of these two areas? It creates more of a “dot on the map” than an area of transition. Just my two cents.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:53 am
The form is not very original. Dante Alighieri’s depiction of the spiral is a very nice source of inspiration though. The sculpture looks very spiritual and I love the importance given on energy conservation.