Secrets of the Sun–Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA, United States

L.A.

Los Angeles, CA, United States

SoS Los Angeles

Prism - Solar Spectrum light art for a Los Angeles Union Stationt by Peter Erskine
“Secrets of the Sun: Millennial Meditations – Los Angeles.” Detail of the installation in the Union Railway Station Main Waiting Room, 1995. The Waiting Room was the largest space in the sprawling 20,000 square foot “S.O.S. – LA” exhibition. Erskine intentionally infused S.O.S. (with its other-worldly white suited visitor/participants) into the hustle and bustle of commuters at Los Angeles’ historic Union Station. The towering 16′ x 20′ heliostat solar tracking mirror, mounted in the station’s south garden courtyard, reflected over 30,000 watts of free renewable solar energy into the four darkened rooms of LA’s classic architectural landmark. On the far wall of the Main Waiting Room, 4′ x 8′ laser-cut prisms refracted white sunlight into millions of ever changing rainbow colors. Erskine selected Union Station as the site for “S.O.S. – LA” because of its Art Modern beauty, and for the symbolic power of sustainable mass transit in combating climate change.