"Secrets of the Sun," a solar artwork by artist Peter Erskine, is sending the rainbow hues of the sun's spectrum dancing through the ancient chambers of the Imperial Forum in Rome.
The work is composed largely of sunlight and water vapor. Mirrors reflect natural sunlight into darkened chambers onto an oscillating prismatic object that breaks the white light up into the colors of the solar spectrum.Visitors walk through the installation wearing white jumpsuits so that their bodies can become canvases for the changing hues.
Erskine spent two years developing the project in his Venice, Calif., studio, sponsored by the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, which committed $300,000 to underwrite it.
"Secrets of the Sun: Millennial Meditations, I" has been created to dramatize "the beauty and the horror" of sunlight, the artist says.