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Artistic Mirage
1/4 Mile Arc by Phillip K Smith III

Recently, an art piece constructed of around 250 mirrored posts taking up a quarter mile was suddenly installed along Laguna Beach in California. “1/4 Mile Arc” was the name of Phillip K Smith III‘s art installation commissioned by Laguna Art Museum for the annual Art and Nature programme. Without the use of complex structures or electricity, the installation truthfully captures the changes of people, light and shadow and tuns them into poetic images with just a layer of reflective material.

Born in California, Phillip K Smith III graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor Architecture and is famous for reflecting the movement and changes of the environment with simple materials. In his previous work “Lucid Stead”, he built a shack in a desert corner of Joshua Tree with wood and mirrors, creating the illusion that you could see right through the building. As for 1/4 Mile Arc, the same concept was reproduced in a much larger scale and expanded to the entire coastline. The sufficient space between the posts allowed visitors to move around while adding a certain degree of disruption between each piece of reflection. Because of that, the installation blends in with the natural scenery, creating an interesting result that can be likened to “glitch art”.

1/4 Mile Arc was dismantled at the end of last year. Besides the still images above, you can also admire the cleverly and beautifully captured changes from day to night in the video below.