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Global Solstice: Photos Photograph the Solstice Participate! Dec. 21, 2001 It's the Solstice: Why should we care? Rebirth By Baile Oakes. Artists respond to the Solstice.
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It's the Solstice:Why should we care? |
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Solstice literally means "sun stop", so it seems like a good time to stop, take notice and celebrate a new beginning. After December 21st in the Northern Hemisphere at 11:21 am PST, the daylight hours will get progressively longer until the Summer Solstice (June 21st) at which point our daylight hours will get gradually shorter again. In the Southern Hemisphere, this dance of the Sun and Earth are reversed. This is due to the tilt of the Earth relative to its orbit around the Sun. Why should we care? At a time when so many of us work indoors under electric light the Sun's movement may seem less important. From an environmental perspective, the Sun is the key to almost every aspect of life on the planet. For millennia, people have celebrated the solstice because of its link to the cycles of life. Christmas, Hanukkah, Yalda and countless other celebrations at this time of year have traditions directly or indirectly connected to ancient solstice celebrations. Many artists have explored the Sun's relationship to the Earth in their work as well. We asked Baile Oakes, artist and author of "Sculpting with the Environment, A Natural Dialogue" to share some thoughts on the Winter Solstice. (top)
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Rebirthby Baile Oakes We seem as a species to have a great propensity to take the most important aspects of our lives for granted. I am sitting down during this Thanksgiving Season to write a short introduction for greenmuseum.org about the artistic significance of the Winter Solstice. So I begin to think about this season of thankfulness and its significance to my present task at hand. The very fact that an essay is needed to introduce the importance of art's relationship to the Winter Solstice is an incredible indication of how removed we are culturally from a basic recognition, reverence and thankfulness for a primal force that is so vital to our lives and survival. It is wonderful that greenmuseum.org chose the Winter Solstice to introduce an online institution for ecological art because it recognizes the primal beginning point of all organic life on Earth. (top)
After all, we share the same ancestry as the stars since we all began with the Big Bang. All the molecules in our body have their genesis within this ancient phenomena and to some degree we must retain a cellular memory of our personal connection to the cosmos. "We need places," says artist Charles Ross, "that remind us or our being in the stars." In a real physical sense our mutual ancestor is our Sun whose life giving energy sustains us all. To those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice is the moment each year that marks the rebirth of the return of the warmth of the Sun. Metaphorically, the Winter Solstice can be viewed as the conception of Spring. (top) Historically this time of year has been a time of great celebration for past cultures who were much more aware of the importance of the cycles of our Sun's relationship to the Earth's seasons. People recognized the day of the Winter Solstice as that moment when the daylight hours began to increase thereby renewing hope and belief in the rebirth of Spring. Today we still celebrate this time of year as a sacred time but remove it from its ecological significance. "Important celestial events were, for our ancestors, sacred." According to E.C. Krupp, director of the Griffith observatory. "Naturally we associate the sacred with religion, but among traditional peoples a sense of the sacred is really a recognition of the world's structure. This cosmic order induces reverence and awe because it seems to be what makes existence and life possible."
Likewise James Turrell has said, "I am interested in light because of my interest in our spiritual nature and the things that empower us. My art deals with light itself, not as the bearer of revelation, but as revelation itself." The Winter Solstice is this revelation. The return of the energy that brings sustenance and life to us all. Recognized or not, there have been artists throughout the ages who have dedicated their artistic expression to this wondrous event in our lives. "For me the winter solstice brings Nature and Culture into perfect alignment. On the Winter Solstice the rays of the rising and setting Sun bridge the chasm between Earth and Heaven, Art and Science, pre- historic and contemporary architecture." Peter Erskine / ErskineSolarArt.net (top) |
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Artist IndexThere are countless artists from thousands of years ago to the present day who have concerned themselves with solar cycles and the Solstice. Below is some additional information about the artists mentioned in "Rebirth" by Baile Oakes. (top)
Fern Shaffer and Othello Anderson "The Winter Solstice ritual done in 1985 which appears on the cover of The Reenchantment of Art by Suzi Gablik, was about the anticipation of spring. An acknowledgement of winter's importance as an interval of time during which a sequence of recurring patterns of events is completed. The decision to use the color green was that it represents plant life." More information about Winter Solstice, by Fern Shaffer and Othello Anderson.
Baile Oakes "From the perspective of looking southwest toward the horizon line of the ocean and sky, the central element of the sculpture appears to close, forming a thin vertical aperture. When the Sun appears in the top of this aperture, it announces the beginning of the solstice season. Each day the Sun will appear lower in this aperture until the day of the Winter Solstice. On this day the Sun sets exactly in the middle of this opening, marking the celebration of the rebirth of the life of the Sun-the conception of the coming birth of Spring." More information about Gestation, by Baile Oakes.
Peter Erskine "Spectrum of Time" is a permanent rainbow sundial calendar installation in the Kokerei Zollverein, a United Nations Historic Preservation site. Hour and month lines painted on the walls and floor of the 40' X 40' X 40' industrial museum space mark the hours, summer and winter solstices, and the spring and autumn equinoxes with astronomical accuracy. A 30' X 30' cross of solar spectrum light powered by the rotation and tilt of the earth tells the time and date. On cloudy days a laser pointer driven by a solar tracking program fills in for the rainbow." More information about Peter Erskine
James Turrell "Roden Crater" is Turrell's masterpiece located in the Arizona desert outside of Flagstaff. It is an enormous crater that has been transformed into a sculptural space with tunnels and multiple chambers for experiencing celestial phenomena. "The Sun and Moon Space,a space with a round cross-section, may be accessed via underground ramps. The visual axes of the two entranceways run perpendicular to respectively placed surfaces of a white stone in the middle of the room. Each access tunnel functions as a camera obscura projecting the images of sun or moon onto one or the other side of the stone's surface. Every 18.61 years, when the moon reaches its southernmost declination, its image, including the vast craters, will be visible inside the room. Sun projections may be experienced twice a year, at the time of the solstices. At those times, the surface texture of the sun, which is riddled with black dots, will be just as clearly visible as ongoing protuberances. The contours of both images will stay sharp for about 2 minutes only, the remaining time the Sun and Moon Spacewill be awash with an even, unfocussed light of the Ganzfeldtype. The space will be lined with black and white stone and the floor covered with black sand in order to make the projected images of the planets glow. More information about James Turrell |
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