Kinetic Art: Special Bas-Reliefs with Solar Illumination

The Great Pyramid of Cheops near Cairo was constructed so that on its south face a slight dihedral angle would cause the formation of a shadow at sunset at the spring equinox. The author, an Egyptian by birth, has employed the principle of the periodic production of shadows by the Sun as the Earth rotates around the Sun and around its axis in his Solar Bas-Reliefs. The objects consist of a surface in relief made of many elements, each capable of casting an individual shadow. The elements are designed to produce different ratios of sunlit to shaded areas and, in an ensemble, have been employed to produce figurative images.

The author describes in detail Solar Bas-Reliefs consisting of two types of shadow-casting elements. He calls attention to his first full-scale installation (1978) at Les Halles in Paris, which displays the image of a lion cub between noon and 14.00 hours on sunny days.