Grimanesa Amorós 2026: RADIANCE Light Sculpture
Discover RADIANCE, a color-shifting light sculpture by Grimanesa Amorós suspended above the orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Grimanesa Amorós created the RADIANCE light sculpture for the Los Angeles Philharmonic
- The installation is suspended above the orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall across three shows
- It draws inspiration from Prometheus and Viracocha, symbolizing fire and knowledge
- Measuring 60 × 35 × 5 feet, it uses custom LED tubing and reflective materials
A striking new light sculpture installation titled RADIANCE, created by artist Grimanesa Amorós and commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has been presented at the Walt Disney Concert Hall across three consecutive performances. Conceived to accompany Alexander Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, Op. 60 (1910), the artwork takes fire as its core subject, materializing as a pulsing spark suspended directly above the orchestra.
The installation draws heavily upon two distinct cultural references: Prometheus, the mythological figure who gifted fire to humanity, and Viracocha, the Incan creator deity. Together, these figures frame illumination as both a carrier of knowledge and a medium for transformation. The Peruvian-born American artist has utilized light as both material and language since 2002, with RADIANCE serving as an expansion of this approach to a grand architectural scale.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
Measuring 60 × 35 × 5 feet (18.29 × 10.67 × 1.52 meters), the installation is constructed from reflective materials, color-shifting rope-like LED tubing, and custom electrical hardware. A specialized lighting sequence was authored specifically for the piece to govern its shifting illumination patterns in real time.
Integrating a contemporary light sculpture into Frank Gehry’s iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall highlights the evolving relationship between site-specific art and architectural acoustics. By programming both the artwork and the venue's house lighting as a unified entity, the artist dissolves the boundaries between static object and dynamic performance environment, offering audiences a fully immersive synesthetic experience.
A central pillar of this commission is the seamless integration of the sculpture with the Walt Disney Concert Hall’s existing house lighting. Grimanesa Amorós programmed both systems to operate as a singular lighting environment, connecting the suspended artwork directly to the architecture and the live performance rather than treating it as an isolated object within the venue.
The sequence was composed second by second in direct relation to the orchestra, evolving through six major synchronized moments. Consequently, the illumination of the sculpture, the concert hall, and the live musical performance progress as a unified, coordinated system throughout the entire duration of the work.
Source: designboom
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