shop window paper

 

 

 

Calçada da Estrela is slightly orientated in the same direction as the sun’s route, this meaning that, from midday onwards, the Shop Window gets its first rays of light. This is also when a series of objects, to which I give the name of Meridian, become visible to the eye. The sun’s light, when crossing the fresnel sheets, reveals us three objects while the sun is shifting. This takes place during a variable duration of 4 hours, between midday and four o´clock in the afternoon. At six in the afternoon, the light of the lamps is activated for its viewing.

Meridian comes from latin “meridies” which means “line that merges places that have midday at the same time”, in other words, the moment when the sun reaches its maximum height in relation to earth. Meridian is also the name of a sun clock which announced midday by the firing of a little cannon. To the latter there was a lens attached through which a light ray focused and consequently burned a gunpowder thread.

Based on some of these ideas, I have developed these three conical objects, by thinking about the idea of verticality, curvature, zenith and delirium.

 

Francisco Pinheiro

Written on a hot summer’s day