Light Pyramid: Liliane Lijn - a new public artwork for Milton Keynes
Date uploaded: August 1, 2012
Light Pyramid: Liliane Lijn
A new public artwork for Milton Keynes
Commissioned by MK Gallery in collaboration with The Parks Trust, artist Liliane Lijn (b.1939) has created Light Pyramid, a new artwork that by day appears as a six metre high pyramidal sculpture, but by night radiates light, serving as a unique beacon for Milton Keynes. This work is Lijn’s second public art commission for Milton Keynes, the first, Circle of Light (1979), is a kinetic light sculpture located in thecentre:mk.
Sited at the end of the Belvedere (a made-made feature formed at the time of the original construction of the city centre), in Campbell Park, Milton Keynes, the sculpture is located at the eastern most end of Midsummer Boulevard and the highest point in the park. The site within Milton Keynes’ city park affords extensive views of the surrounding Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire countryside, from which the pyramidal sculpture will itself be prominently visible.
Light Pyramid has been developed from an earlier geometric work, Inner Light (1993), a sculpture in Reading that plays with a very similar geometry of two inclined triangular wedges fabricated in stainless steel and clad in Welsh slate. In Milton Keynes, Lijn has used a similar geometry for each wedge or triangular solid. Using five wedges, instead of two, she has positioned them in a circle. Each wedge occupies approximately sixty degrees, interrupted by narrow triangular gaps, which complete the 360 degree circle. The sculpture has been fabricated in powder coated steel, the outside plane of each wedge a solid plate, the two inner planes perforated, thus allowing light, from concealed flood lights within each wedge, to spill from the narrow open areas.
In playing with geometry in her work Lijn says that it always seems to lead to a revelation of the relationship between the outer form and the inner content. Thus, she sees this sculptural structure appear as a defensive formation, shields facing outward, protecting the translucent inner body, a much softer surface that emits light.
Light Pyramid is a permanent commission, and the sculpture can be seen by visitors to Campbell Park all year; it will be illuminated to coincide with special events in the park.
Liliane Lijn is represented by Riflemaker, London.
