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Charlotte, North Carolina, is largely powered by Duke Energy. Literally but, thanks to a new public art installation by Depeña Studio, figuratively, too. The utility company commissioned the work for its headquarters plaza downtown, where founder Ivan Toth Depeña drew on his interpretation of the photon, the smallest particle of electromagnetic energy, aka light.
The result, Photon/s, consists of two sculptures that soar 32 and 37 feet high, with 11 rays bursting from each centroid in a 20- and 30-foot diameter, respectively. The rays approach contact, which Depeña says “plays with the idea of connectivity at the atomic and subatomic level, where theoretically nothing actually touches.” Weighing 3,500 pounds collectively, they’re anchored in a 10-foot-square, 5-foot-deep concrete foundation and comprise steel armatures encased in high density EPS foam wrapped in woven glass fiber cloth, coated with resin, sanded smooth, and finished with a fluoropolymer coating. Each arm is capped with a node of white LEDs that blinks in a nonrepeating pattern, together creating the effect of embers in a campfire.
A third burst appears as a 40-by-60-foot silhouette in Duke Energy’s facade beyond. Here, more than 3,000 LEDs pulse in a looping pattern. “The light bounces off the surrounding buildings, creating a choreography of reflecting and refracting within the plaza volume,” Depeña adds. Cables threading throughout all three sculptures deliver power and data, enabling Photon/s to send actual photons into the evening sky.
Photography by Myles Gelbach.
Photography byBen Premeaux.