There’s a new public sculpture outside the California African American Museum in Exposition Park. Conceptual artist Chloë Bass’ work rests on a patch of gravel near the building’s entrance, 16 tinted glass panels set in steel and etched with text. They’re based on photographs Bass took of the sky and they form a shimmering arc in gradations of blue, lilac and gray.
Together, the panels make up an analemmatic sundial. As visitors hover over the work, functioning as a vertical gnomon, their shadows fall onto one of the panels, depending on the time of day. Snippets of text — ruminations such as “Do you know how difficult it is to make something appear effortless?” — appear in shadows on the ground. The utilitarian work is ethereal and seemingly simplistic, but it’s brimming with meaning.
“There’s a lot about what is seen and unseen, what is known and unknown,” CAAM Executive Director Cameron Shaw says while standing over the work. Her sundress ripples gently in the breeze, creating dancing shadows on a panel to the right. “And it’s about this experience of how things change over time.”
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