Thursday, November 19, 2015
Massive LED Star Lights Up Malaysia
The Creators Project: A star has landed in Penang, Malaysia. Built from steel cables and over 500 meters of LED light, artist Jun Hao Ong's latest site-specific installation, The Star, traverses a four-story cement building to illuminate the 2015 Urban Xchange public art festival. Steel rods fan out from the sculpture’s spherical center, piercing through the building’s foundation in an acute interconnected network of light.
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4 comments:
I love the way a really unique installation can transform a space. My first reaction to seeing this was that it looked a lot like a line form project for Susan Tsu. I personally think I would love to just spend a summer travelling to different cities and trying to capture their spirit in an installation like this one. There is something so special about such a well done installation such as this one that draws people in and can make to just stop to look, maybe think, maybe just appreciate the beauty for a second.
I love the spirit of this piece, using modern materials to highlights existing infrastructure and architecture. I am curious as to whether or not the artist had to purchase or rent the building prior to creating the installation. If it was abandoned (as it appears to be), it might not have mattered, but then it makes a statement on the use of abandoned spaces for good and beauty.
I would have liked for the article to go into more detail about how many man-hours it took to install the fixture and how long it will remain there. Is it now a permanent installation, or will it be struck at the end of the festival? From the video, the artist seems to use locals to perform the work needed to create the structures, which bring work into the local economy; however, I wonder if that much of a power draw would create any safety regulations depending on where you were located.
That entirely aside, I think the installation is beautiful and absolutely worthwhile. I am interested into seeing more installations by the same artist.
I am a bit confused for a few reasons. First of all I think that the mission is a really great one, I think Pittsburgh needs to still have an educational facility that keeps part of the Pittsburgh culture alive. At the same time I would be interested to read how the center will be providing its own income. This place cannot survive on generous donors for forever, a non-profit still needs income! Second, the entire article I think is just pretty vague as to what these fund raising strategies are, besides asking nicely. The article says that the trust will be looking for patrons from all over the country to help and I think those with Pittsburgh near and dear to their hearts will definitely give the center money. Then there will be those people with the true appreciation for the arts and the financial resources to spend on the August Wilson center.
This is very cool. I like the way the light works in the location that he has chosen, and I think most of what makes the piece so striking is the location. The photographs of the lit star made of very cold, LED light inside the open structure make it look like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. There is a lot of artwork and photographic art now that explores the buildings and neighborhoods left abandoned: houses falling apart, theme parks left empty, experimental neighborhoods that were never populated, neighborhoods and entire cities wiped out by natural disaster or disease. These topics are always incredibly moving, as they remind us of what is left behind or forgotten as people move on and times go bad. This star, though simple, is still very powerful to me not because of the technology or the innovative methods or whatever, but because of the way the artist has placed it in the building.
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