Home / Art / Installation

Dichroic Installations Reflect Dazzling Rainbows When Light Hits Them

By Kelly Richman-Abdou on August 6, 2018

Spyra (Detail)

Artist Chris Wood has mastered the medium of light. For years, she has created dichroic arrangements that play with luminescence to produce colorful shadows and radiant reflections. Today, Wood continues this practice, crafting ethereal installations that offer “ephemeral glimpsed moments in the natural world.”

Whether a whimsical wall panel or a suspended sculpture, each work of art performs a dazzling display of color when illuminated by either a natural or artificial light source. To achieve this eye-catching aesthetic, Wood uses dichroic—a coating developed by NASA in the 1960s. “The material itself is transparent,” she explains, “however it shifts from being reflective like a golden mirror to vibrantly colored or almost transparent depending upon the viewpoint and angle of light.”

With the material's reactive nature in mind, Wood stresses the importance of installation. While she notes that the pieces shine their brightest when bathed in natural light, a nearby window is not enough to capture their full potential. “The key thing to get right is that the light falling on the panel needs to be at an angle to the dichroic pieces in order to create the best range of projections and reflections of color,” she says. “On a wall with a window to the left or right or above is perfect . . . whereas a wall with a window in front of it—not so good.”

Clearly an expert, Wood is often commissioned to create her glowing installations for all sorts of institutions, from museums and galleries to hotels and hospitals. To find out where you can find her sparkling work, stop by her website.