Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) 2014 by John Gerrard is a computer simulation of an actual power plant known as a solar thermal power tower, surrounded by 10,000 mirrors that reflect sunlight upon it to heat molten salts, forming a thermal battery which is used to generate electricity. Over the course of a 365–day year, the work simulates the actual movements of the sun, moon, and stars across the sky, as they would appear at the Nevada site, with the thousands of mirrors adjusting their positions in real time according to the position of the sun.
This virtual world is meticulously constructed by the artist, a team of modelers, and programmers, using a sophisticated simulation engine. Simultaneously over a 24–hour period the point of view will cycle from ground level to a satellite view every 60 minutes, creating an elaborate choreography among perspectives, 10,000 turning mirrors, and a dramatic interplay of light and shadow.
Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) 2014 was commissioned by the Lincoln Center in association with the Public Art Fund. The project was supported by the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation, Richard J. Massey Foundation for the Arts and Sciences and VIA Art Fund. Courtesy of Simon Preston, New York and Thomas Dane, London.
Support for Public Art at Lincoln Center is provided by the Public Art Committee, Peter S. Kraus, Chair.
Corporate support for the installation of this work is provided by SolarReserve.
Additional support is provided by The David and Peggy Rockefeller Art Fund.
Producer: Werner Poetzelberger
Programmer: Helmut Bressler
Modeler (Terrain and landscape): Adam Donovan
Modeler (Facility and Heliostat): Markus Bliem
Project Photographer (US): Travis Hall
Installation Development / Technical Design: Jakob Illera / Inseq Design
Game Engine: Unigine
On View: July 12, 2018–September 3, 2018
Location: Resnick Lawn
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), in collaboration with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, presents John Gerrard: Solar Reserve, the first Los Angeles presentation of Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) 2014 since it was purchased with funds donated by Leonardo DiCaprio in 2015. The installation was first presented in New York City in 2014 by Lincoln Center in association with Public Art Fund. This monumental digital simulation recreates a solar thermal power plant in Nevada and the surrounding desert on a frameless LED wall. At the center of this virtual world is a tower encircled by 10,000 mirrors that adjust their positions in real time according to the location of the sun, and reflect light on the tower to generate electricity.
John Gerrard, a 2016 LACMA Art + Technology Lab grant recipient, is best known for artworks featuring real-time computer simulations that explore geographically isolated locations and examine networks of energy. Working in painstaking detail with a team of programmers, he created Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) 2014 using a sophisticated video game engine that situates the sun, moon, and stars as they would appear at the actual Nevada site over the course of a year. As this virtual world rotates on the earth’s axis through a 24-hour day, the perspective of the viewer gradually shifts from ground level to satellite view every 60 minutes, so that no view is precisely the same at any point during the course of the exhibition.
“This is the first time John’s Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) 2014 will be presented at LACMA since Leonardo DiCaprio so generously purchased the work for the museum in 2015,” said Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director. “As an artist who embraces technology and experimentation in his practice, John explores light and space in this piece, and we're thrilled to share this important work from our collection with audiences in Los Angeles, where the Light and Space movement launched.”
“Solar Reserve grew out of two interests: historic representations of the sun and the manner in which petroleum eclipsed the sun as an energy source in the 20th century,” said the artist. “Climate change now forces us to address a legacy of extreme energy consumption in the last century, and it is interesting for me to show this simulation in L.A., one of the sunniest yet most energy-consuming cities on earth. The work radiates hope and beauty, but it is also an apparition, existing solely as software code. One of the questions it seeks to ask is: to what degree will the energy crisis be addressed by solar facilities, and to what degree is the optimism of renewable energy itself an apparition if we do not reduce global energy consumption?”
John Gerrard: Solar Reserve is co-curated by Jennifer King, Associate Curator of Contemporary Projects, and Meghan Doherty, Curatorial Assistant, Contemporary Art.
This installation was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. Sponsored by Jackson Family Wines.
EVA International, Limerick, Ireland
14 April – 18 July 2018
Presented upon an artist designed frameless rear projection screen, 15 x 17 ft.
Ireland’s Biennial of contemporary art presents the 38th EVA International, featuring historical, recent and commissioned works by 56 artists in exhibitions across five venues in Limerick city and an extended programme at Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.
Curated by: Inti Guerrero
www.eva.ie
9 June – 7 August 2016
John Gerrard 'Power.Play'
Curated by Philip Tinari
UCCA (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art) Beijing to bring 'Power.Play' a first solo exhibition of John Gerrard’s work to China.
Gerrard’s first exhibition in China features three recent, major works.
Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma) 2015, is a digitally modeled composite of one of Google’s server centers in Oklahoma.
Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014, a reconstruction based on satellite imagery of a system of roadways located mysteriously in the middle of the Gobi Desert, which then becomes the site for a lengthy elimination game played among avatars modeled on factory workers in Guangzhou.
Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) 2014 is a painstakingly accurate, virtual portrait of a functioning solar farm, widely admired for its dramatic presentation in the Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, in late 2014.
18 – 21 June 2015
'Art Unlimited'
Art Basel
Presented as artist designed frameless rear projection.
October 3 – December 1 2014
Presented by Lincoln Center in association with Public Art Fund.
Displayed on a 28ft x 24ft artist–designed frameless LED wall on Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza.
Commuters passing by Lincoln Center on their way to work will see the sun charging the power plant as it rises in Pacific Standard Time, while visitors to evening performances might view a sunset before local Nevada constellations emerge and floodlights illuminate the solar tower at night.
www.publicartfund.org
www.apps.lincolncenter.org
The project was supported by the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation, Richard J. Massey Foundation for the Arts and Sciences and VIA Art Fund. Courtesy of Simon Preston, New York and Thomas Dane, London.
Support for Public Art at Lincoln Center was provided by the Public Art Committee, Peter S. Kraus, Chair.
Corporate support for the installation of this work was provided by SolarReserve.
Additional support was provided by The David and Peggy Rockefeller Art Fund.
latimes.com
Vankin, Deborah. ‘LACMA debuts “Solar Reserve,” a digital sculpture addressing energy conservation’. Los Angeles Times Online. 12 July 2018
unframed.lacma.org
Doherty, Meghan. ‘The Virtual World of John Gerrard’. Unframed LACMA Online. 11 July 2018
frieze.com
Chu, Mimi. ‘EVA International: A Heavy Duty Show on Limerick’s Industrial History’. Frieze Online. 30 April 2018
artnet.com
Cait Munro, “Leonardo DiCaprio To Donate John Gerrard's Massive Installation To LACMA,” Artnet News, 9th June 2015
royalacademy.org.uk
Sam Phillips, “Our pick of this week’s art events: 6 – 12 February, RA Recommends,” Royal Academy, 6th February 2015
artinamericamagazine.com
Carol Becker, “Here Come the Sun,” Art in America, 1st December 2014,
artnet.com
Blake Gopnik , ‘John Gerrard's Chilling View of Solar Heat’, Artnet, October 28, 2014
wsj.com
Andy Beta, “John Gerrard's 'Solar Reserve' Comes to Lincoln Center”, Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2014
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