The array covered an expanse equal to 8 football fields. For a sense of scale, note the herd of cattle grazing just above the grid.
Luminous Earth GridSolano County, CA
© Stuart Williams 1993. All rights reserved.
Cosponsored by:The New York Foundation for the Arts & Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco
Luminous Earth Grid, an array of 1,680 energy-efficient fluorescent lamps, swept over 10 acres of undulating landscape, 50 miles north of San Francisco. Said the artist, “I see the project as a poetic statement on the potential harmony between technology and nature.” Over a five year period, Williams launched a rigorous fund raising campaign throughout Northern California, and raised nearly half a million dollars to realize the massive project. It was widely acclaimed by critics around the globe and drew tens of thousands of visitors.
“It is unquestionably the most ambitious work of environmental art in the San Francisco Bay Area since Christo’s Running Fence. It is a joyful thing.”
—Allen Temko, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, San Francisco Chronicle
All photos © Craig Collins.
- Detail photo at twilight.
Two student volunteers from UC Davis. An installation crew of more than 200 individuals helped install the project, including six electricians.
“It emanated a sense of the romantic sublime with its aura of surprise and wonder.”
—Peter Selz, former curator, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Said Williams, “The glowing green grid can be seen as an icon of computer imaging technology, which in this ‘real life,’ incarnation, gently melds with the flowing shape of a lovely landscape... a dream-like vision of symbiotic unity.”
- Electricians and volunteers prepare 1,700 waterproof, flexible electrical connectors that will connect the fluorescent tubes end on end. The connectors must provide protection from rain, and also allow the linear array of 4 foot tubes to bend and incrementally match the roll of the terrain.
- 12 miles of electrical wiring were required. In addition, a temporary extension cable, which was strung down the mountainside, hooked into existing power lines along the freeway and brought power to the grid. That cable weighed 6 tons, and was the diameter of a man's forearm.
- As the grid neared completion, the electricians and the artist gathered for a photo.
Read a recent interview with the artist by a writer in Berlin:
http://www.ignant.de/2011/02/07/stuart-williams/
