SOL:
Glass stela 100cm(W) x 20cm(D) x 300cm(H)
Grass hill 16m(W) x 15m(D) x 0,7m(H).
Materials: triple laminated dichroic glass panel, soil, grass.
Curator: Team Factory Seoul.
Production and construction: Design Firm.
Photos: Texture on Texture
SOL is a public art installation part of ‘Today’s Weather’, a public art project initiated by Taeyoung Engineering & Construction and curatorial team ‘Team Factory Seoul’. ‘Today’s Weather’ emphasises nowness while looking at the weather as the absolute universal human condition that transcends time, place and social circumstances.
SOL features a laminated glass stela and a large grass mound located in a public park atop the new 5 stories U PLANET complex. Rather than a static work of art, it can be better described as an experience that acknowledges the power and importance of the cultural production of space.
Historically, tracking the movement of the sun and its exact location at sunrise and sunset was amongst the first human astronomical knowledge, a universal metaphor for the perpetual promise of a new beginning. Now, any myths or mysteries seem to have been removed from the heavens.
On May 19th 2005, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured a stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. Mars is known as the Red Planet, but this spectacular Martian sunset was surprisingly blue.
SOL refers to a Martian day — the day-night cycle on Mars — of 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35.244 seconds. At an urban location just outside Seoul, where the horizon is blocked by high-rise buildings, SOL reflects the sky and recreates the characteristic blue-hued lights from a martian sunset. The large grass mound provides a resting area for people to gather together, bringing back the idea of awe and ritual around weather phenomenons.
