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# Giant Prisms Shine Their Multicolored Light on a Pasadena Park
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/sun-day-star-2018-axs-festival/
- Published: 2018-11-06T19:01:28.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:09:27.000Z
- Description: The art and science AxS Festival culminates with a collaboration between artist Liliane Lijn and UC Berkeley astrophysicist John Vallerga.
- Author: Matt Stromberg
- Tags: Art, Events, Los Angeles, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-18 14:37 (2018)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/11/sunstar.jpg)

Liliane Lijn and John Vallerga, “Sunstar” (image courtesy Mt. Wilson Institute)

The [2018 AxS Festival,](https://www.axsfestival.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) organized by [Fulcrum Arts](https://www.fulcrumarts.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) (formerly the Pasadena Arts Council, founded in 1964 to provide support for artists), is a 10-day celebration of art and science based around the Pasadena area. This year’s theme is the “City as Wunderkammer,” positing the notion of the city as a “cabinet of curiosities” on a grand scale. Some of the projects include [Lawrence English’s “Seirá](https://www.axsfestival.org/lawrence-english/?ref=hyperallergic.com),” a take0ver of the decommissioned Los Angeles Civil Defense System for a public sound artwork; “[Our Garden of Dreams](https://www.axsfestival.org/dominique-moody-our-garden-of-dreams/?ref=hyperallergic.com),” a mobile sculpture garden by Dominique Moody; and a benefit concert on November 7, performed by seminal experimental composer [William Basinski](https://www.axsfestival.org/2018-annual-benefit/?ref=hyperallergic.com), whose minimalist works incorporate traditional instruments like piano and clarinet with tape loops and delay systems.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/11/prism-mirrors-reflecting-the-60-foot-solar-tower.jpg)

Liliane Lijn and John Vallerga, “Sunstar” apparatus (image courtesy Mt. Wilson Institute)

The festival’s closing event will be a [viewing of “Sunstar,”](https://www.axsfestival.org/sun-day-star/?ref=hyperallergic.com) a collaboration between artist Liliane Lijn and UC Berkeley astrophysicist John Vallerga. Mounted atop Mount Wilson’s historic 150-foot Solar Tower, a series of prisms are activated by computer code to focus colored beams of sunlight on specific locations. Since November 2, the [beam has been projected on various sites](https://www.axsfestival.org/sunstar/?ref=hyperallergic.com) corresponding with festival events. On Sunday afternoon, it will be visible from Pasadena Memorial Park, as it cycles through a programmed sequence of colors, dubbed “Sun Songs” by Lijn. In conjunction with the viewing, from 1 to 2:30pm Los Angeles experimental chamber ensemble wasteLAnd will stage a free concert in conversation with the solar artwork, featuring pieces by Elizabeth Lutyens, Toru Takemitsu, Pauline Oliveros, and others.

**When:** Sunday, November 11, 12–4pm  
**Where:** Pasadena Memorial Park (85 E Holly St, Pasadena, California)

*More info at* [*AxS Festival*](https://www.axsfestival.org/sun-day-star/?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.*