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Zenith
by David
Ward
At-Bristol undertook a major Public Art
commissioning programme linking the public open spaces themed around
reflection and exploration. The Public Art complements the rich
architectural heritage of the site and extends the themes of
Explore and the former Wildwalk
by encouraging people to look at the World in a new way. By animating
the public spaces the Public Art helps to create a unique urban space.
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©Barbara Evripidou,
Bristol Evening Post |
Traversing the depth of At-Bristol’s
Millennium Square is a dramatic integrated light piece by light artist
David Ward. Zenith
is inspired by an analemma - the line traced by the sun recorded at noon
over the course of a year, as used in the past by navigators, explorers
and astronomers. 52 runway-landing lights have been used in this piece,
and are programmed to trace a constantly changing orbital path across the
square.
On
the horizontal plane of Millennium Square, Zenith
recreates the shape of an analemma – an elongated ‘figure of
eight’. The top point of the figure of eight marks the highest position
of the sun in midsummer and the lowest point midwinter. The curves and
overlaps of the figure result from the changing inclination of the axis of
the earth to the sun as the earth orbits the sun.
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Visitors
to the square will see light moving towards and passing away from them as
the 52 lights in the piece (corresponding to the number of weeks of the
year) appear to move in waves across the square. The computer controlled
light units provide brilliant and radiant points of light – providing a
strong visual presence during daylight hours, as well as at night.
David
Ward is particularly interested in working with insubstantial light in
contained environments and his work has been commissioned for many
different venues, from galleries to swimming pools. He says of Zenith:
‘Zenith’s visual formation and its performance as a light work relate
to the source image of the analemma on a poetic level, as an analogue
rather than a literal, mechanical model, allowing broader associations of
astronomy, observation, movement, time and dynamics to come to mind’.
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