Helio-Chronometer 2004
The Helio-Chronometer/ Inti-Hautana, 2004, in collaboration with architect James Cornejo.
The Helio-chronometer / Inti-Huatana / Reloj Solar is a 100' tall solar clock facing Lexington Ave on the wall of PS 72 in East Harlem ( El Barrio). Part time piece, part sculpture and part shadow pictograph, the chronometer marks the passage of natural/scientific time. It’s intricate network of cables and linear arcs trace and measure the transit of shadow cast by a central indicator pole (or gnomon).
The name Inti-Huatana, the native Andean Quechua word for sun dial, literally translates as “Sun Anchor”. Our metropolitan Inti-Huatana aspires to be a cultural anchor, a keeper of time, memory and history.
For urban students and passers by, the solar clock is a reminder of a connection with nature, linking the movements of peoples and cultures with the movement of sun and earth and anchoring our present to a past and a future.
Patterned by symbols and motifs, six colorful filigree metal “culture arcs” (each with a companion image “gnomon”) celebrate New York City’s diverse heritage. From left to right the arcs portray elements from Mexican cut paper arts, a sampled Hip Hop local street graphic, a Chinese “lace paper” rooster with arced palm frond, a pre-Columbian textile snake with South West pottery “zig zag” arc, an African arc of Ndinkra symbols with Egyptian eye and a Coqui (the iconic frog of Puerto Rico) whose shadow hovers over an arc of sugar cane.
Details:
As the sun travels the sky, the central pole casts a moving shadow along an arc-like paths. These shadow path vary from the longest Summer arc, to a middle path representing both Spring and Fall to the briefest arc of the Winter sun.
Additional cables, radiating to mark key hours in each season.
The work is constructed of steel cable and 1" sheet aluminum powder coated with a color finish.
The Helio-chronometer / Inti-Huatana / Reloj Solar is a 100' tall solar clock facing Lexington Ave on the wall of PS 72 in East Harlem ( El Barrio). Part time piece, part sculpture and part shadow pictograph, the chronometer marks the passage of natural/scientific time. It’s intricate network of cables and linear arcs trace and measure the transit of shadow cast by a central indicator pole (or gnomon).
The name Inti-Huatana, the native Andean Quechua word for sun dial, literally translates as “Sun Anchor”. Our metropolitan Inti-Huatana aspires to be a cultural anchor, a keeper of time, memory and history.
For urban students and passers by, the solar clock is a reminder of a connection with nature, linking the movements of peoples and cultures with the movement of sun and earth and anchoring our present to a past and a future.
Patterned by symbols and motifs, six colorful filigree metal “culture arcs” (each with a companion image “gnomon”) celebrate New York City’s diverse heritage. From left to right the arcs portray elements from Mexican cut paper arts, a sampled Hip Hop local street graphic, a Chinese “lace paper” rooster with arced palm frond, a pre-Columbian textile snake with South West pottery “zig zag” arc, an African arc of Ndinkra symbols with Egyptian eye and a Coqui (the iconic frog of Puerto Rico) whose shadow hovers over an arc of sugar cane.
Details:
As the sun travels the sky, the central pole casts a moving shadow along an arc-like paths. These shadow path vary from the longest Summer arc, to a middle path representing both Spring and Fall to the briefest arc of the Winter sun.
Additional cables, radiating to mark key hours in each season.
The work is constructed of steel cable and 1" sheet aluminum powder coated with a color finish.
