Artwork Description
Light Wall Crucimatrilux is an integrated wall of glass and mirror panels attached to stainless steel frame that is a continuation of the masonry wall that bounds the south side of Chifley Square. The mitred edges of the 12 mm glass form prisms that refract the light passing through them to reveal spectral rainbows along the top and bottom edges. The artwork also acts as a wind barrier.
SUBJECT
The wall is entitled ‘Crucimatrilux’, meaning cross, matrix (mother) and light. A matrix is an entity or substance from which things, events or processes arise. Coming from the same Latin root as ‘mother’, it is a pregnant pre-existing state of potential. In this cruciform light matrix, a virtual cityscape arises as the viewer looks into it. It scatters reflections of the surrounding city and enters an illusionistic space through the use of mirror panels at one end.
The glass structure appears to repeat endlessly into a concrete wall. The work was intended to act as a heightened version of the surrounding cityscape where multiple reflections and infinitely varied degrees of transparency deform perception of space and order.
ARTIST
Simeon Nelson created the artwork in collaboration with architecture firm, Hassell. Nelson was born in England in 1964 and arrived in Australia in 1967. He studied at the National Art School in 1984 and completed a Bachelor of Visual Art (sculpture major) at the Sydney College of the Arts in 1987. In 1990, he completed a Sculpture (Post-technician) Certificate at East Sydney Technical College. He has exhibited widely since 1988 .
