Buster Simpson, Incidence (2002)
Roof Plaza Installation
July 6, 2002 - July 21, 2008
Organized by the Museum of Glass
Sponsored in part by Milgard Manufacturing, Inc. and Trex
Incidence is a sculpture about the perception of a material, glass. The installation exploits glass and our fascination with its illusive, transformative and dematerializing qualities. The phenomenon of the incidence of ambient light on glass provides an ever changing easel to the sky.
The installation consists of an array of thirty-eight 4 foot by 8 foot plate glass panels sited in a 120 foot long outdoor reflecting pool. The sculpture resembles the kerf of a saw blade or a row "House of Cards." As the viewer passes alongside the array, a procession of their reflections kinesthetically punctuates the mirrored skyline of the city waterfront edge. When viewed on axis, the multiple panels align into an illusion of infinity. The geometry of the installation is a response to the dominant architectural feature of Arthur Erickson's building, the large spiral cone. The installation frames the distant Mount Rainier (Mount Tahoma). This alignment recalls the first peoples' myth of the "Spirit Door" referencing the winter solstice when the sun appears from behind the mountain as a symbol of transformation.
