Color Spectrum Pyramid

Description illusionscene

Using 10 thousand meters of acrylic yarn (approx. 32808 feet), artist Lee Baker made a three-dimensional installation entitled “Refractive Monolith.”

Notes about project (published at Vimeo):

Commissioned by The Future Tense for it’s SPECTRA I exhibition […]

As with Baker’s paintings the joyous colours give a reassuring sense of security, while at the same time the spectrum of laser-like yarn represents the volatile infrastructure and relative weakness of buildings. The gray walls serve to both enhance the colours whilst also alluding to a looming catastrophe.

Drawing on the narrative and scenic elements of Japanese films such as Osamu Tezuka’s ‘Metropolis’, Katsuhiro Otomo’s ‘Akira’ and further exploring the idea of a self-aware ‘thinking city’ developed in films such as ‘Tekkonkinkreet’ and Makoto Shinkai’s ‘A Place Promised in our Early Years’, Lee Baker’s art practice explores the dichotomy between Japan’s fragile, intricate cultural aesthetic and the relentless forces of urbanisation that increasingly mark its landscape.