French lighting artist Yann Kersale has created a permanent installation called Sea Mirror or
Miroir de Mer using 2880 LED lights and 320 mirrored panels.
It is located at the One Central Park development in Sydney, Australia.
Project description
Making a dazzling new addition to Sydney's southern CBD skyline, Sea Mirror or Miroir de Mer is by conceptual French lighting artist, Yann Kersale.
Located on One Central Park's dramatic cantilevered heliostat at the $2 billion Central Park development in Chippendale, Sea Mirror will be opened tonight by Bridget Smyth, Design Director of the City of Sydney, in the presence of the internationally-acclaimed artist himself.
Sea Mirror is a permanent addition to Central Park's $8 million public art collection.
Description continued after the gallery
Description continued
Kersale's inspiration for the artwork is Sydney Harbour. This permanent artwork features a rotating sequence of short ‘performances' reflecting the seasons – Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. Each sequence is designed to capture the changing colours of Sydney Harbour in the 320 individual mirror plates of the heliostat.
These mirrored panels each contain nine LED coloured lights, which collectively are programmed to create a dazzling artwork from dusk until 10pm every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
Unlike the temporary lighting artwork Sydney enjoys in festivals such as Vivid Sydney, Sea Mirror is a permanent addition to the city's cultural landscape.
During the day, One Central Park's heliostat captures sunlight via large mirrored panels on the roof of One Central Park's smaller West tower, bounces this light to the mirrored panels affixed to the framework protruding from the higher East tower, and reflects this light into the precinct's retail atrium, pool terrace and adjoining parklands.
The sophisticated light reflecting feature is Australia's first heliostat to be incorporated into the architectural design of a high-rise residential tower.
Kersale describes the narrative of his work: “Sydney's harbour is mythical for the sailing universe and being a sailor myself, the opportunity to capture the sea in this way and reflect it indirectly on the heliostat, constitutes the grounds for this geo-poetical signal. ”
“A rotating series of images of reflections of the sun on the water will be take shape via lights on the heliostat. The variations will be in relation to the shades and colour tones of Sydney's harbour. It will not be a live projection but a capture of sea substance and light sparkles on site, which will then be worked on. They can relate to seasons or can be a game of opposites; ie. the light emanating from a summer sun in the middle of winter. ”
“It is important to understand that the installation is an allegory, a symbol of the sea in the city.”
The construction and installation of Sea Mirror and the heliostat has been delivered to precision by a collaboration of Sydney-based construction, engineers and lighting specialists including Kennovations, Arup, Watpac and Xenian on behalf of the joint venture developers.
Interestingly, each of the 2880 LED lights in the heliostat has its own URL address and are controlled via a sophisticated software system.
Artist: Yann Kersale
Photography: Simon Wood Photography
