Making "Rise and Shine" (2015)
Rise and Shine measures 8 x 20,5 meters and consists of about 430 meters of Accoya, 8 pieces of acrylic, 40 meters of LED lights and about 2500 screws. In accordance with the wishes and spirit of the committee and building, Rise and Shine is made with eco-friendly materials and its LED lights draws very little power. This is also reflected in our choice of making a beehive, as it is a very important part of our eco system. Besides, the hexagon is a shape that is as solid as it is beautiful.
We manufactured each cell in my studio with precision. There were three sizes of Accoya, each having to be cut in a 30-degree angle at different lengths. In total there are 584 + 336 + 16 pieces of the three different sizes of wood. This put my little studio to the test in terms of working space.
After each piece was cut, we mounted as much as we could. We made templates to make it easier and mounted all the 40 whole hexagons. After that we made every partial hexagon. We also made the huge center cell that had to hold a giant acrylic plate safely in position.
It took 9 days to mount the whole thing on the wall. We had a huge lift at our disposal that we loaded with everything we needed and more. The first hexagons were most important since that laid the foundation for all the rest.
After the fist layer of hexagons it was time to mount the LED light. A total of 40 meters of flexible LED strips on 10 different channels was used in the project, every one of the cables coming out of the center and through the wall. With expert help from two electricians every cable and connection was done within two days. The 10 channels operate independently from each other, the first 4 for the center cell and the other 6 in the surrounding area. Since we used RGB (red, green, blue) LED lights we are able to program every color we can think of. Mainly we wanted to use blues and cold tones in the summer and orange and warm tones in the winter. The center cell is lit many hours a day, always giving off a sense of a living organism, slowly pulsing in different rhythms.
The idea is that the queen cell has the power, and that the continuous building of cells happens closest to the power source, and at the far edge the cells are not yet built. We wanted to give the impression that this is forever growing and that each cell is an important part of the structure.
We wanted the title, Rise and Shine, to be taken both in a literal sense, and as a form of motivation. This is a hall built for team sports and we wanted to make something as a reminder that every cell counts, and that together we can achieve something that is more than the sum of its parts.
