with SolaFrame 3000-light fixture by ETC
Janet Echelman transforms public places around the world with her giant net sculptures. Her art meanders at the intersections of light and art, between architecture, urban planning, material science, computer science and civil or aeronautical engineering.
Janet Echelman and our bond with this planet
‘Earthtime 1.78 Vienna’ is illuminated with a powerful and balanced light that draws soft lines even in intense colours like blue and red but even in delicate pastels. Using unusual materials – from fish nets to finely atomised water particles – Echelman combines traditional craftsmanship with complex processor architectures. Echelman’s hanging sculptures – moved by wind and weather – perform gently undulating choreographies.
With ‘Earthtime 1.78 Vienna’, the artist refers to the geological event, the tsunami in Japan in 2011.
Echelman has nothing against museums. On the contrary. Yet the enclosed space, bounded by wall and ceiling, does not seem to suit her fluid artworks. Echelman is known for her gigantic net sculptures and combines ancient crafts with original computer design software to create works of art. With her series of sculptures in ‘Earthtime’, she wants to raise awareness of the connection with one another and with our physical planet, using strong colors and soft curves to highlight this.
The work of art unfolds its full magic in the evening through sophisticated illumination
Curator Klaus Krobath comments on the use of light in her work: “Light is a significant element in the work of Janet Echelman and in the staging of her installations of art. The degree of lighting, the color of light and the change from light to dark influences the environment and the people looking at her sculptures.”
“Due to the transparent material and the fishnet-like structure, the light intensity plays an important role so that the light is visibly reflected, and the nets can be perceived as floating bodies of light. The angle of the beam of light and its direction must therefore be precisely matched to the mesh sculpture,” says Krobath.
High End SolaFrame by ETC as spotlight
Austrian lighting designer Andreas Ryba was entrusted with the lighting design for ‘Earthtime 1.78 Vienna’. “We have prepared ourselves long and hard for this project,” says Ryba, the head of Vienna-based company A. Ryba Multimedia Lichttechnik. “The artist doesn’t want any hard edges, so we have to be very careful with the use of light and of course make sure we choose the most suitable lighting systems.”
With this in mind, only ETC products were the answer for Ryba, specifically the High End Systems SolaFrame 3000 moving lights. Ryba already had extremely positive experiences with the SolaFrame 1500 which he has used frequently in the past and recognized that he needed even more powerful light output for this art installation. “We decided on the bigger brother of the SolaFrame 1500 and selected the SolaFrame 3000 with high fidelity engine. I think this is the best choice for ‘Earthtime’.”
Various lighting options
The light output of 25,000 lumens, a color rendering index (CRI) of 96, the linear color mixing system and the DMX networking capabilities were all convincing arguments to choose SolaFrame 3000 fixtures. As the installation takes place outdoors, Ryba mentions another great feature of the automated LED fixture which is the anti-fogging lens system. “This gives us additional security for this time of year. After all, weather conditions should not affect this extraordinary performance. “
A total of 20 SolaFrame 3000s have been provided by MOTION GmbH for the large-scale, floating installation which runs from 10th September – 10th October 2021.
Text by ETC :: Gunther Matejka
Photos:
Janet Echelman _ ETC EarthtimeVienna
Illuminated by 20 High End Systems SolaFrame 3000 fixtures from ETC
all photos: © eSel.at – Lorenz Seidler, www.esel.at
