A Place in the Sun : Artist Plans to Show Solar-Oriented Sculpture in an Ancient Roman Site

Los Angeles artist Peter Erskine once had a rather conventional career, making handsome sculptural objects, winning grants and commissions--and attracting little notice. But about a year ago he decided to follow the sun, and the path may be taking him to stardom in ancient Rome.

Erskine has been invited to exhibit his new work--made of sunlight, space, water vapor and hardware--in conjunction with an October meeting of the International Solar Energy Society in Rome. The proposed site of the exhibition is Trajan’s Markets, an early 2nd-Century tier of buildings adjacent to the remains of the Forum of Trajan.

The project is pending final approval by Forum officials in early September, after Erskine presents a model of his proposal. Erskine also faces the challenge of funding the exhibition, budgeted at more than $200,000, but he has already secured about two-thirds of that amount in donated services and equipment. Recently, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation came to the rescue with a gift of $10,000 and Erskine is determined to come up with the remaining $50,000 or so.

This story wouldn’t be surprising if Erskine were a well-known personality on the international art circuit or a recognized leader in solar-powered art. But the Yale-educated artist is probably best known by a few art aficionados who have visited his Venice studio and by his neighbors who wonder what he is up to.

His corrugated metal studio, which towers above the one-story houses in his modest neighborhood, sports a heliostat on the roof. This improbable contraption--consisting of a mirror rotated by clockwork--tracks the sun and reflects light onto an oscillating prismatic device inside the studio. The prism disperses light rays onto mirrors set around two sides of the room, which reflect light onto white walls in an ever-changing play of color. On a sunny day, when the colors are brightest, visitors see all the hues of the spectrum fleeting around the room and creating new colors as they overlap.

“I want it to be like walking inside a Cubist painting,” Erskine says. Indeed, visitors who don white jumpsuits and walk around the studio find that they are part of the canvas.

But aesthetics is only half of his artwork, collectively called “Secrets of the Sun.” The other half consists of insistent warnings about environmental problems. Dire quotations about global warming are printed on the mirrors in the studio, while a recorded voice recites a list of mammal and bird species--presumably endangered.

Another installation combines water vapor with sunlight. A black sculptural construction that resembles a factory has tall “smokestacks” that emit vapor. When positioned in front of the prism, the vapor billows forth in glorious color. The effect is stunningly beautiful, but it is also a stark reminder of industrial pollution.

“It’s the beauty and the horror,” Erskine says of the double message in his work. Conceived as a fusion of art and science, “Secrets of the Sun” is meant to draw a relationship between the sun and life on Earth. “It’s an interactive metaphor for the global environmental crisis our planet faces at the end of the second millennium,” he says.

Until recently, Erskine’s goal was to schedule exhibitions of his new work in major American museums. He still wants his work to be seen in museums, but the planned project in Rome has taken him out of the art world and into a whole new sphere.

“I feel like I’ve stepped into much bigger shoes than I ever wore before--and they fit,” Erskine says. “I feel like the last 50 years of my life have been in preparation for this. It’s the most exciting and important thing I’ve ever done.”

His invitation to Rome was serendipitous, however. Asked to make a proposal for the Museum of Modern Art’s “Projects” series in New York, Erskine was looking for a suitable high-grade heliostat when he heard about a series of round tables sponsored by the International Solar Energy Society. Mike Nicklas, an official of the American section of the society, suggested that Erskine might show his work at one of the meetings. It was too late to plan for the Denver conference (held last week), but Rome was a possibility.

Erskine subsequently took a vacation in Italy, stopping in Rome to look at potential sites with Cesare Silvi, secretary general of the Italian section of the society. They made the rounds, enlisting the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome as a co-sponsor of the show, but no appropriate site turned up. After Erskine took off for Milan, Silvi called and asked him to take a night train to Rome. When Erskine arrived, Silvi told him he had made preliminary arrangements with the City of Rome to have the exhibition in Trajan’s Markets.

Some of the rooms in the markets have been designated for display of archeological artifacts from the site, but they have never been fully operable as a museum. Erskine hopes to use three rooms and an entryway for his exhibition.

As he plans it, visitors will gather in the arched entry, where light will be projected on the ceiling. Then they will proceed outside to the Forum where they can see one or more computer-controlled heliostats at work and hear a sound piece created by Bruce Odland and Paul Klite of Terra Infirma. “All the sound equipment and motors will be solar-powered. People will see them, so they can make a clear connection,” Erskine says.

In the first room of the exhibition, visitors will encounter an atmosphere of colored vapor with a sound track from a rain forest. The second room, sparsely furnished with mirrors and projected light, will function as an interlude. The final room will offer a spectacle of colored light, captured from the sun and reflected off mirrors that are imprinted with environmental messages. Throughout the exhibition, white panels echoing shapes of the ancient architecture will serve as a canvas for ephemeral color.

The round table, on “Economic, Social and Political Aspects of Renewable Energies in Industrialized Countries,” will be held on Oct. 30-31. It is one of a series of meetings intended to contribute to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June.

Erskine plans for his exhibition to open in mid-October, about a week before the Rome conference, and to continue for six weeks. In the meantime, he is working nearly nonstop to make it happen.

“The biggest challenge is to raise funds and make sure the piece really outdoes anything I’ve done before,” he says.