HADDAD | DRUGAN

Reflex Solaris is an environmental artwork that uses the sun’s alignment and reflection to create an aesthetic experience tied to Richmond Beach Saltwater Park’s unique concave landform, dramatic westerly views, and cyclical time.

Radiating out from a focal point sundial terrace are five stainless steel reflectors built into the land’s upper slopes.  The reflectors reflect the earth and sky back into themselves.  This displacement and replacement of landscape is a conceptual tie to the site’s mining history.

Each mirrored reflector has three facets positioned to capture and play with the visual dynamics and spatial relationships of the site—from the cinemagraphic sky-scape of moving clouds, sunlight, moonlight, and starlight, to the spectacular views out across Puget Sound to the Olympic Mountains. 

Each reflector also aligns with a significant astronomical locus: the solstices, equinox, true morth, and magnetic north. On the solstices and equinoxes the setting sun hits the aligned reflector and shoots sunlight back to the sundial on its east side, while on its west side the shadow of a handrail marks the solar alignments, creating a nexus of place space, and time.