Lucid Stead: A Transparent Cabin Built of Wood and Mirrors by Phillip K. Smith III

Just a little information about this amazing structure (which Sabrina Vourvoulias shared with me), and then I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.

Part architectural intervention and part optical illusion, Lucid Stead is a recently unveiled installation by artist Phillip K. Smith III in Joshua Tree, California. The artist modified an existing 70-year-old homesteader shack by introducing mirrors to create the illusion of transparency, as the structure now takes on the lighting characteristics of anything around it. LED lighting and other custom electronic components were further installed within the building’s interior to illuminate from the interior at night. Smith says of the installation, “Lucid Stead is about tapping into the quiet and the pace of change of the desert. When you slow down and align yourself with the desert, the project begins to unfold before you. It reveals that it is about light and shadow, reflected light, projected light, and change.”

 

All photos courtesy Royale Projects

On the weekend of October 12th in Joshua Tree, California, artist Phillip K Smith III revealed his light based project, Lucid Stead. What was expected to be a two day event for a handful of viewers, turned into over 400 people making the journey over two weekends. People as far away as New York City and Canada traveled to the California High Desert to experience it. Numerous media sources have asked to do cover stories on the work. Thousands of photos professional and amateur, were taken, posted and shared across blogs and social media sights. In just over 30 days, Lucid Stead officially became a phenomenon.

Composed of mirror, LED lighting, custom built electronic equipment and Arduino programming amalgamated with a preexisting structure, this architectural intervention, at first, seems alien in context to the bleak landscape.  Upon further viewing, Lucid Stead imposes a delirious, almost spiritual experience.  Like the enveloping vista that changes hue as time passes, Lucid Stead transforms.  In daylight the 70 year old homesteader shack, that serves as the armature of the piece, reflects and refracts the surrounding terrain like a mirage or an hallucination. As the sun tucks behind the mountains, slowly shifting, geometric color fields emerge until they hover in the desolate darkness. This transformation also adapts personal perception, realigning one’s sensory priorities. A heightened awareness of solitude and the measured pace of the environment is realized.
Smith states,

"Lucid Stead is about tapping into the quiet and the pace of change of the desert.  

When you slow down and align yourself with the desert, the project begins to unfold before you.  It reveals that it is about light and shadow, reflected light, projected light, and change."

Phillip K Smith III received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. He draws inspiration from the reductive logic of minimalism and the optic sensation of California's Light and Space movement. Smith’s innovation and exploitation of new technologies keeps these ideologies current. He was honored as the 2010 Artist in Residence at the Palm Springs Art Museum and was included in the exhibition, Smooth Operations: Substance and Surface in Southern California Art, alongside artists such as Peter Alexander, Larry Bell, DeWain Valentine, and Craig Kauffman at the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster CA. He has been asked to return to the museum for a solo exhibition opening in January 2014. He has been commissioned to create over a dozen monumental art works and his light based sculptures are collected Nationwide.  Phillip will open a solo exhibition of lightworks at Royale Projects: Contemporary Art in Palm Desert on November 29 2013.  His work will be featured at UNTITLED   art fair in Miami opening December 1st.

Now, go make something beautiful!

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(¸.•´ (¸.•´♥ Tristan ♥