Commissioned for a private collection in Rancho Mirage, CA, Smith placed a pure, eight foot diameter reflective circle on the west facing wall at the end of the pool, breaking the rectilinear composition of the home. The result is an abstraction of directionality where one sees the west against the backdrop of the east. This compression of ever-shifting directionality and space into a singular view transforms into an organic metamorphosis of nature denoting the change of atmosphere over the individual hours of the day.
By day, the crisp, cropped, seemingly abstract portal to the real world reflects the shifting sky, the palm tree tips, and the San Jacinto range. At dusk, Smith’s choreographed internal light emerges from within Sky Torus, seemingly floating within reflections of the surrounding landscape’s deep purple, rich salmon, and fuchsia. After sunset dims, the disc glows, enlivened by its strategic queue of lit concentric circles blooming from within an aluminum frame, extending the magical “golden hour” that valley denizens famously know and love. Illuminated color within a night sky, unhinged from the physics of reality, where mystery and beauty wash away the concrete nature of time, marks the core of this commission. Through a precisely placed reflected surface, Smith uses the daily phenomenon of the changing sky as the canvas on which he works.
