This story was originally published in Architectural Lighting.
Artist Erwin Redl’s installation “Whiteout” will be on view from Nov. 16 through March 25, 2018, on the central Oval Lawn in Madison Square Park in New York City. The artwork is the 35th outdoor exhibition sponsored by the Madison Square Park Conservancy, which has been showcasing the work of living artists in the park since 2004.
The piece, which measures 110 feet wide by 180 feet long by 12 feet tall, incorporates 900 transparent white spheres suspended via cabling from a grid of steel poles. A white LED is embedded in each orb, and each orb floats 2 feet above the ground plane of the lawn. The artist’s computer-generated wave pattern sequences across the spheres from north to south and south to north creating “a luminous white carpet of LED lights” and a source of public illumination during the short, dark days of the winter.
Trained in composition and electronic music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Redl is known for his light projections on building façades. His work is inspired by the artists of the Southern California Light and Space movement, such as Robert Irwin, James Turrell, and Doug Wheeler. In “Whiteout,” Redl aims to explore “the use of white in modern and contemporary sculpture.” As the press announcement notes, “In 'Whiteout,' Redl assesses white for its typical association with light, but he pushes the associated imagery through repetition and kinetic movement.”
In the press statement, Redl said, “I am intrigued by the Park’s option of a large-scale installation that blurs the border between the virtual and the real. The physicality of the swaying orbs in conjunction with the abstract animations of their embedded white lights allows the public to explore a new, hybrid reality in this urban setting.”
Visitors are encouraged to post images on Twitter and Instagram using the hastags #MADSQArt and #ErwinRedl.
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