Harvey Milk Terminal 1
Departures - Level 2
Orion 2019
Spencer Finch
b.
Filters, fixtures, LED tubes
Each star is approx. 9 ft. (108 in.) in diameter (7 stars total). (Interestingly, the artist website listed general dimensions of "4'-7' (each)."
SFAC 189
This work is inspired by the seven major stars of Orion, one of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky. Orion is comprised of the stars Alnilam, Alnitak, Bellatrix, Betelgeuse, Mintaka, Rigel, and Saiph. The artist affixes colored filters on LED light tubes to represent the spectral color emission of each star. For example, Betelgeuse is a very old star and appears red in the night sky. The younger stars appear blue. Alnitak and Mintaka’s spectral “fingerprint” are similar and look almost identically blue. The position of the star sculptures in the installation roughly correlates to their position vis-à-vis one another in the night sky.
