Elmhurst Art Museum’s Skycube, 2015, celebrates ten years

Skycube-2

By Maureen Callahan

Want to look down at the sky? It’s possible to do just that in the Skycube Plaza of the Elmhurst Art Museum. Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, Skycube, 2015 brings views from above down to eye level, in real time. Edge up close to it and look down. You’ll see airplanes lazily weaving through floating clouds and the pastels of sunset, as the skyscape changes with the hour. At night, it’s a live picture of moving stars.

Essentially, you’re looking down to look up. Spectators approach the 8 ft x 8 ft x 8 ft cube and look onto an approximately 45-degree angled mirror that reflects the sky. It’s as though the real-life picture is moving through a frame of white painted steel in front of you. The result is a fascinating look at the sky above, which changes with the time of day – a blue sky early on gives way to a pitch-black star scape after nightfall.

Skycube, 2015’s placement in the art museum’s outdoor concrete setting is the perfect juxtaposition of nature – the sky – contained in steel and standing on a concrete plane. This piece is very intentionally placed across from Mies Van Der Rohe’s McCormick House. Local artist, David Wallace Haskins, intended the piece to be placed in its exact location so the two structures would appear to be having a conversation.

A limestone bench placed exactly 16 feet from the front center of Skycube, 2015, offers spectators the perfect spot to rest as they reflect on their presence against the vastness of the sky. The experience invites contemplation of the unique presence of each of us in an enormous universe.

Haskins’ work aims to combine the abstractness of life, space, and time utilizing components of psychology, ecology, physics and philosophy. He has certainly achieved it in Skycube, 2015. ■

Author

Chocolate brownie cake with a scoop of ice cream with a mint leaf on a white plate

Oak Brook: A True Dining Mecca

Naz Faces fall (51) (2)

EDUCATION: Nazareth Academy

Timothy Christian School Ed Issue.3

EDUCATION: Timothy Christian Schools

Downers Grove Christian School

EDUCATION: Downers Grove Christian School – Downers Grove

St. Mary of Gostyn School

EDUCATION: St. Mary of Gostyn School

St. Joan of Arc School

EDUCATION: St. Joan of Arc School – Lisle

St. Joseph School-8218

EDUCATION: St. Joseph School

Elmhurst University leaders Kent Dahlgren, Wes Becton, Hugh McLean, Diane Salvador and Troy VanAken, and Elmhurst Mayor Scott Levin take part in the groundbreaking for a new health sciences building. Photo courtesy of Elmhurst University.

Elmhurst University introduces multimillion-dollar health science hub

Rudy-IMG_8430-copy-2

Rudy: 30 years later, Rudy walks on with a new generation

pexels-jay-randhawa-19099691-e1704578338601

The Essentials: Winter Clothing and Accessory Trends

Glaciers-Photo-by-Chris-Henry

Iceland

Hiking electric blue tinted glaciers and exploring ice caves are a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Ice-caving season goes from mid-October through March.  Photo by Chris Henry

Iceland