2021 | Vincent St, Leederville | custom made aluminium screens & lighting | 71m (length) x 16m (height) x 0.2m (depth) | commissioned by ABN
This work was conceived in response to the architectural expression of the external veil, a series of folded aluminium screens installed on the facade of the new build. Lead architect Yong Lee, and artist Tom Mùller collaborated from the very beginning and considered the most efficient and poetic way the artistic component integrates the architectural language of the built form. These early discussions between architect and artist were essential in arriving at a conclusive design that both spoke to place and time. This folding façade articulated by the perforated and anodised aluminium screens provide the stage upon which the illuminated activation takes place. Thousands of LED’s are seamlessly encased within a designed fold connected to each screen.
A colour clock inspired by the shifting twilights of the setting and rising suns. Designed around the astronomical time clock, the lighting sequence travels horizontally across the screens in 30’’ – this subtle and gentle chromatic breath pays tribute to the cycle of the setting and rising suns as the light travels through the various twilights. Each day of the week has its distinct gradient enabling the audience to identify a particular colour sequence to the relevant day.
Inspired by this unique natural phenomenon, the ‘Colour of Time’ borrows from nature to imbue a human made structure with cosmic cycles. It takes the sun exactly two minutes to set from the moment, when the edge of the disc touches the horizon, until it disappears completely. This precise timing is divided into four equal segments of 30’’ each – referencing the four sides of the built form. Each screen is part perforated, part extruded with hundreds of circles representative of small suns. Each of these tiny suns release the light as the colour sequence travels across the façade.