Downtown Largo

South entrance plaza.

Largo Lens, 2004
Ray King
Glass, stainless steel, concrete
16' l x 32' h x 2'6" w

Largo Lens

View Photo Gallery

Largo Lens is a free-standing, light-sensitive sculpture. It was designed to capture and manipulate sunlight in unexpected ways by projecting, refracting, and reflecting illumination and color into the surrounding space. These rainbow-like emanations constantly shift and change, creating a magical and enchanting environment that appeals to one's sense of awe and wonder.

Largo Lens is comprised of laminated glass facets geometrically configured onto a "lens" framework that anchors a tensile structure made of stainless-steel tubes, cables, and fitting. The glass elements are laminated with a thin layer of laser-etched holographic film sandwiched between two safety glass panes and are geometrically eccentric to accentuate the curved lens shape.

The prismatic laminate reflects brilliant color when struck by sunlight and exhibits a shimmering silvery iridescence, similar to luminous fish scales, at all other times. The refractive nature of this glass will respond to the ambient light to capture and reflect light and chromatics in unpredictable ways, depending on the angle of light and the orientation of the viewer.

In designing Largo Lens, King envisioned a modern, high-tech sculpture which incorporates light in ways that harden back to ancient monuments and the scientific explorations of Galileo and other mathematicians who were searching for connections with the cosmos.

The sculpture is one of a continuing series of chromatic sculptures that interact with and are animated by sunlight to form a visual conversation with nature. Largo Lens faces the southern meridian of the sun to capture and disperse the sun's refractions.

Ray King is an accomplished artist works in the contemporary art realm. He uses the natural phenomena of light as it interacts with glass and optics as an art medium. By creating dynamic interactions with the sun and refracting light into colors - rainbow-like emanations that shift and change as the viewer moves or as the light source changes - King creates an environment that appeals to viewers' sense of wonderment and delight.

Largo Lens was commissioned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority as part of the Blue Line extension to Downtown Largo station.