Warren Langley (left) examines his commissioned work Microscopia (2010) at the Canberra Glassworks. photo: jeremy lepisto
Warren Langley has been commissioned to create an eye-catching light sculpture that is set to dazzle the 70 million visitors expected to attend the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, China’s international fair of culture and technology from May 1 through October 31, 2010. Providing the backdrop to business presentations at the Australia Pavilion at the expo, the glass panels are an innovative way to mix colors in layers of LED lights that the artist has called working in “pure color.”
The AU$ 140,000 (aproximately US$ 125,000) commission measures 19-feet across by 8-feet high, and features textured glass panels, made in part at Canberra Glass Works (read Jeremy Lepisto’s blog about the project here, and be sure to look at the video from the local news program). The patterns in the glass are a reference to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Interviewed by the Canberra Times, Langley described the experience of creating the piece as a new experience of chromatic potential: ‘‘It was a bit like opening a box of candy. I was working on the notion of painting with light, LED pure color and had done all the models, but it was only when we put it all together I realized the potential of what we could do.”
After the Shanghai Expo, Langley’s work will return to Canberra where it will be permanently installed at the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital expected to open in mid-2011.