DIANA THATER
Composite Sun, 2000
Video monitor, DVD player, DVD
Dimensions variable
Courtesy David Zwirner, New York
Composite Sun originates in photographs taken by a NASA solar telescope in single shades — red, green, and blue. Thater has combined these colors and animated them, displaying the sun as though in movement. "I wanted to recognize something we're never able to see: the sun as a volume," she has said. To accentuate this volume, Composite Sun is displayed in a box monitor, directly on the floor, referencing the mass of more traditional sculpture. Thater's interest in the sun stems from her lifelong commitment to environmental activism and work on behalf of dolphins and other wildlife.