See Ryoji Ikeda's Spectra

The tower of light which has been visible across London over the past week, commemorating the beginning of the First World War, will be permanently extinguished at dawn tomorrow, 11th August, bringing to an end a thought-provoking week for London. The installation, created by Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda and London-based arts organisation ArtAngel, consists of a twenty-metre grid on Victoria Tower Gardens beside the Houses of Parliament containing forty-nine searchlights, all pointed skyward to create an intense column of light.


The light was unannounced, and when your author rode by on his bike in the days before he was even slightly annoyed that the public park appeared to be being appropriated for some sort of corporate summer party. In fact, when the column appeared in the sky at dusk on Monday it was a poignant echo of the start of the War, and over the last seven nights as we all go about our business in various part of the city between sunset and sunrise, it has continued to remind us of what was happening a century ago.

For more, see http://www.artangel.org.uk/projects/2014/spectra/about_the_project/spectra

_{^Picture © Jim Crossley used under a Creative Commons license^}