Reflected light, original music and a high-tech control system will be features of the newest student sculpture on the Homewood-Flossmoor High School campus. Plans for “Solar Wind,” which would be the 13th student sculpture at H-F, were presented to the District 233 school board on Nov. 21
Reflected light, original music and a high-tech control system will be features of the newest student sculpture on the Homewood-Flossmoor High School campus.
Plans for “Solar Wind,” which would be the 13th student sculpture at H-F, were presented to the District 233 school board on Nov. 21. When completed, the physical work will consist of a mirrored sculpture mounted to a wall and floor, surrounded by colored LED spotlights. The lights will create different patterns and images when projected onto the mirrors.
“It will be a light painting, constantly changing and moving,” said H-F fine arts teacher Greg Petecki.
Once the sculpture is installed, recorded music will accompany the light show. The H-F music department was invited to compose and perform original pieces for “Solar Wind,” Petecki said. A digital control system will be built into the sculpture to coordinate sights and sounds.
Presenting plans for the sculpture to the school board were H-F senior Danielle Jordan, senior Marney Small and sophomore Jake Kirlin.
“We wanted to create this sculpture because of the fact that all life on Earth can be traced to solar flares,” Kirlin said. “We want to go back to the beginning.”
“Solar Wind” will be dedicated to astrophysicist Dr. Eugene N. Parker, a Flossmoor resident. Parker developed the theory of supersonic solar wind, Jordan said, which explains solar energy as a stream of particles emerging from the sun. In another honor, a planned NASA probe to the sun is set to be named the Parker Probe.
Building the sculpture will be merely the end of a long process for the three-dimensional sculpture class, Petecki said. The class was divided into four teams of students, each assigned with different tasks. The artists were responsible for “selling” the idea to a committee and building a scale model.
“We go through the same process of what a real artist would go through to create a public sculpture,” Petecki said. “We take these ideas and bring them to fruition. It’s a great life skills experience for the students.”
The students also learned how to work within a budget. The whole sculpture will cost less than $750.
After a scheduled May 12, 2018 opening, the artists hope to put “Solar Wind” on permanent display in the H-F North Building atrium.
