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Daylight Art in Architecture

 

 

Joost van Santen curriculum

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About my work with daylight

In 1970 I created my first colored glass windows in a church in the city of Hoogvliet. The moment the sun appeared, colors were projected into the room. These images of light, moving through space, fascinated me. From that time light determined my work.

Between 1975 and 1980 I created 'Light Modules'. These are small sculptures. In these sculptures images appear, produced by daylight projected unto a translucent screen. Because of their cubic form they can be put together in changing combinations. These Light Modules are the key to my following sculptures and Light Installations. In the period thereafter bigger objects were created, which could be combined together to form ' Walls of Light'.

In the project of the Ordnance Survey building (Emmen, 1985) red-and blue mirror-objects are hung on the walls of two light wells. These light wells or voids extend through three floors of the building, bringing daylight into the corridors. A purple glow of light appears in the wells. The installation has an extra dimension when the sun is shining. Images appear on the walls and on suspended panels. These images vary with the nature and intensity of the daylight and sunlight entering the wells. The tension of changing phenomena that can be present, depending the time of day and the weather, is a significant theme in my work.

In the project of the Head Office of the ING-bank (Amsterdam, 1987) light installations were placed into the wells of the ten towers of the building. In each well brass and copper relief's, facing the sun, are crown the upper parts of the walls. Light Sculptures were placed along the internal street. At certain moments reflected sunlight from the relief's reaches these sculptures, merging relief's and sculptures into one single work of art. The appearance of these 'Special Light Phenomena' at certain dates is another theme in my work. I am inspired by important buildings of humankind, like the temples of Abu Simbal in Egypt, Stonehenge in England and the Pyramid of Chitzen Itza in Mexico. See also 'Inspirations.'

In the experiment 'Images from Light Space' (Studio, 1996-1999), continuously changing images appear on to translucent screens, hung inside the three windows of my studio. My ideal is to find an opportunity to realize an architectural space, a 'Light Space' (scale as the Rothko Chapel in Houston Texas), just meant for observing and experiencing light, as part of the universe.

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Commissions

Awards

 

Special Projects

 

Selected Exhibitions

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education

 

lectures, symposia

 

advisory boards

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publications

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Light Art integrated in Architecture

Amersfoort: Railway Station
Emmen: Ordnance Survey Building
Amsterdam: ING-bank Head Office
Hilversum: Railway Station
Den Haag: Palace of Justice
Hillegom: Radiant light in church

Research and Experiments

Light Modules
Images from Light Space

Light Sculptures

Ravensbrück Monument
Four Light Sculptures
Veldhoven: Landmark Sculptures

Identity

Curriculum
Inspiration

contact

[email protected]

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