SpY installs DIVIDED in Xi’an, a monumental red sphere split in two that transforms perception
SpY presents DIVIDED, a monumental spatial installation in Xi’an that continues the artist’s ongoing research into perception, bodily scale, and urban transformation. The work introduces a luminous red sphere split into two hemispheres that face one another, separated by a narrow threshold through which the public walks. The project belongs to the artist’s “Earth” series, alongside “Earth” and “Confronted,” a group of works previously shown in cities such as Madrid, Athens, Riyadh, and Ghent, reflecting on fragmentation, conflict, and coexistence.
Each hemisphere of the sphere is held within an industrial scaffolding structure commonly seen in construction sites. In this context, the scaffold functions as more than support. Its cubic geometry articulates a structural counterpoint to the curved sphere, setting up a visual tension between containment and outward expansion. The scaffolding is left fully visible, turning an architectural system usually hidden behind temporary screens into a key component of the iconography.
As with other installations by SpY, the scale of the work establishes an immediate relationship with the human body. The sphere asserts presence through form and light, asserting itself before it can be conceptually processed. The installation occupies the urban site not as background ornamentation but as an active intervention that alters the perception of distance, proximity, and spatial hierarchy.
The experience of DIVIDED becomes fully activated through movement. Visitors enter the space between the hemispheres, stepping into a corridor bathed in intense red light. This passage shifts the viewer from observational distance to physical immersion. The audience is positioned at the literal point of fragmentation of the sphere, inhabiting a suspended zone where separation and unity coexist simultaneously.
Within this threshold, chromatic intensity and radiant luminosity affect how the eye reads depth and dimension. The curvature of the surfaces destabilizes familiar spatial references, prompting an awareness of the body as a measuring device. Fragmentation does not diminish the monumental character of the sphere; instead, it heightens it by exposing an interior condition that would otherwise remain sealed.
The red light, a recurrent element in SpY’s recent public works, functions as an enveloping atmosphere rather than a mere color gesture. The work reshapes the site into an environment where perception becomes material and participation becomes essential to reading the proposal. Through this shift, DIVIDED reinforces SpY’s long-standing interest in the capacity of large-scale luminous forms to transform urban contexts and establish direct relationships with the viewer.
This transformative power of luminous beams to alter historic civic space and evoke shared contemplation was powerfully displayed when 2,977 lights recreate the Twin Towers as a memorial above New York Harbor, projecting dual pillars of radiant light deep into the night sky.
All images courtesy of SpY, shared with permission
Organizer：Xian Mixc
Curator：Wavelength
Lighting Xi’an Festival
