Luftwerk Transforms Paint and Aluminum into Radiant Explorations of Sunlight

"Topped with a roof shaped like a crabshell, Le Corbusier's Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut is a sanctuary amid the French mountainside. The 1955 construction rests atop a hill in Ronchamp, standing unobstructed by the otherwise forested inclines. As the sun rises and falls, light filters in through the mélange of rectangular windows tinted to cast streams of color around the space. The stained glass apertures of Le Corbusier's modernist chapel are a clear reference point for Luftwerk's "Open Frame.""

"The site-specific work fills a cavernous corner of Secrist | Beach with a collection of rectangular aluminum panels painted with acrylic and, most notably, fluorescent. Where the pioneering architect sought a natural backlight in the sun, Luftwerk relies on the properties of the paint to achieve a luminous glow. The only external source is a handful of strategically placed LED spotlights that bathe the entire installation in purple when in use."

"Long interested in perspective, Luftwerk presents several works that appear dramatically different depending on the viewer's position. The Solargraph series, for example, references the long-duration images that capture the sun's path between solstices. Stretching across the gallery, these works incorporate skinny, aluminum strips painted white on one side and bisected by various hues on the inverse. As the viewer moves, so does the perception of the piece, revealing an expanse"

Le Corbusier's Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut sits atop a hill in Ronchamp, its rectangular tinted windows casting colored streams of light across the interior. Luftwerk's Open Frame occupies a cavernous corner of Secrist | Beach with rectangular aluminum panels painted in acrylic and fluorescent pigment, producing luminosity through material rather than natural backlight and supplemented by a few purple LED spotlights. The Sun Standing Still assembles sculptures and installations that probe color theory, negative space, and spatial perception. Chicago-based Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero draw on sunrise and sunlight qualities to conjure shifting light effects; several works change appearance as viewers move, notably the Solargraph series of painted aluminum strips.

Read at Colossal