Throughout history the sun has played an important role in people’s lives. In Norway perhaps even more so than elsewhere – in northern Norway people live without sunlight for almost six months every year. We call this phenomenon “dark hours” or “polar nights”. During this period the sun does not rise to more than 6 degrees under the horizon during daytime. Depending on where in the country you are, the sun comes back again between January and April, and people mark its return with a big celebration.
The experience of the sun through the senses is a natural part of the human being’s ability to feel the light; both visually and physically. Many designers have reflected upon this experience and – when developing lighting and lamps – tried to recreate it.
The Sun installation is a symbolic representation of the sun itself, using a colour scheme which, like the sun, constantly changes from white to warm orange to burning red. But this installation is more than a depiction of the sun – it also has a conceptual approach, exploring the bodily experience of sunlight, how it effects us emotionally and physiologically.
The installation first travelled from Oslo to Tromsø in northern Norway, to light up the city in a period where it had no sunlight. Now it has arrived in the UK to light up East London during London Design Festival.