PASADENA—Combining sculpture, photography, and sunlight, Los Angeles artist Halsey Rodman will exhibit his artwork at the California Institute of Technology's outdoor art space May 20 to July 9.
Rodman will create an installation called One and Many Suns, creating an environment that questions the nature of perception. The primary sculptural element of the installation will be a wood structure containing five circular mirrors, which will reflect the sun onto an opposing wall. The movement of the reflections throughout the day will be photographed and shown in a display case on the site.
According to Rodman, the work will attempt to question the viewer's relationship to space and time that develops through the action of viewing a photograph as compared to the relationship that exists through viewing the actual object, place, or event that is photographed.
"As we view photographs, we assume a relationship with the world that is not available to our bodies immediately," said Rodman. "The world inverts and comes toward us rather than us traveling out toward the world. So the idea behind the One and Many Suns sculpture is to multiply the sun with an arrangement of mirrors, then to photograph this arrangement and display it in such a way that five suns become visible simultaneously."
A graduate of the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara, Rodman has shown his work at numerous galleries in Los Angeles, including the Luckman Fine Arts Gallery at California State University at Los Angeles, and the Post Gallery.
Rodman's installation will open May 20 with a reception at 2 p.m. The Caltech outdoor art site is located behind the campus recycling center on South Holliston Avenue between San Pasqual Street and Del Mar Boulevard.
Inaugurated in October 1999, the art site utilizes an undeveloped space to allow emerging Southern California artists to display large-scale sculptures; environmental, site-specific work; and other projects, and to encourage a dialogue between artists and the community. This exhibit is the third since the space opened.
