Twenty-Four Solar Terms

Client: Beijing Daxing International Airport

Location: Beijing, China

Completion date: 2019

Artwork budget: $680,000

Project Team

Fabrication

Peter's Glass Studio

Peter's Glass Studio, Germany

East West Art Studio Project Manager

Marco Castaneda

East West Art Studio

East West Art Studio Assistant

Jake Evans

East West Art Studio

Curator

Central Academy of Fine Arts

Architects Consultant

Yang Wen Jing

Yi Chang Architectural Design Firm

Structural Engineer

Xia Bing

Shanghai Yuan Ji Architectural Planning Firm

Industry Resource

Shenzhen guangmei sculpture fresco art design Co,LTD

Lighting Design

Beijing Gala Lighting Design

Installation

Beijing Ouliya New Energy Technology Co. LTD

Overview

“The Twenty-Four Solar Terms” The piece has a diameter of twenty-eight feet and weighs three tons. On every two pieces of glass, Chinese Calligraphy is used to delineate a solar term as interpreted by the artist . Nearly 50 pieces of art glass are arranged in a rising-spiral shape. The continuous curve panels mimic the sky, the universe, the river… and represent the twenty-four solar terms in time and space. The unique color changes in accordance with the essence of Chinese traditional culture flowing in the long river of history.

Goals

The artist programmed multimedia lighting based on changes in the perpetual calendar and the twenty-four solar terms. At certain solar terms, passengers at the airport can see the corresponding part of the work shining, as a slow sundial reminds people that the solar seasons are coming.

Process

Twenty-Four Solar Terms was a complex design that demanded an international, collaborative process with the very best teams of public art organizers, glass fabricators, programmers, engineers, and designers from China, the U.S., and Germany. The sculpture is a combination of abstract painting techniques, translated into architectural glass by Germany's renowned Peter's Glasmalerei, in a feat of handmade fabrication and cutting edge glass technique. The process involves combining hand-made painting and bright brushstrokes fused to large-scale architectural glass panels, in the 800-degree kiln.