Mysterious Lights
A curious thing happened last night as I made my way home. A curious light seemed to fill the sky. Seriously, it was really odd – everything went a weird shade of yellowy-green. Now I’m fairly sure this mysterious light was a perfectly natural phenomenon – perhaps the low cloud was being caught by the setting sunlight which was being refracted by particles suspended in the upper atmosphere to produce that particularly mysterious shade of yellow. OR, maybe it was aliens!
As I sat on the bus, I gazed in wonder at this strange new version of Rio and felt the need to make blindingly obvious comments to strangers. You know, things like “Wow, look at that. It’s really yellow isn’t it?” and “Doesn’t the sky look weird?”. You know, sometimes I think my timidity with communication saves me from some pointless conversations.
As I neared my destination in Glória, the sun went down (or, if you prefer, the alien mothership flew away) and the strange light faded. I hopped off the bus and was just about to make my way up the steep hill I have to climb to get home, when I happened to glance over my shoulder. Seems aliens were in Rio after all! This is what I saw:
A clear-cut case of aliens, right? Look at them, hanging in the night sky – there is no other explanation for this. I have to say, I was surprised too. But the camera doesn’t lie does it?
In fact this is the work of Giancarlo Neri, a sculptor from Naples, best known for his 9 metre high table and chair sculpture named The Writer:
Seems that Giancarlo enjoys the grand gesture…
But back to Rio and these alien lights, the work is called Máximo Silêncio, and it’s really amazing. There are a lot of lamps (9,000 in total) spread out across Praça Paris in Glória. The lamps were slowly, randomly changing colour when I was there, but apparently at other times they synchronise, turning the entire field blue, green, red then yellow.
With these lights spread out in all directions and the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Glória in the background, it’s a stunning view.
I hope my video conveys just what an amazing scene this is – if you’re in Rio then I highly recommend you check it out – the installation will only be here until 4th February so you’d better get your skates on.
Deeply disappointed. When I started reading your post I thought you would talk about orbs in the sky.
Ana, I am sorry – the introduction to my post was deeply misleading… I guess I got carried away with the yellow sky and the next thing I knew, I was leading you all down the garden path. :( No more stories about aliens unless I actually see some! ;)
Tom,
The chair and the table do not seem to be in correct proportion to each other. Only a giant with mangled legs would find those two pieces, paired together, to be useful.
And yes, I know what you are thinking: said giant also needs to water his herb garden in proper intervals. Fine. But the planter should be in proportion to said giant’s dimensions!
I, for one, am outraged at this Giancarlo character.
Ha ha! Good point Gritty – that table needs at least another metre in height to be comfortable. My guess is that is the reason no giants ever showed up for the obvious photo opportunity – they were probably so insulted by the poor design that they boycotted the thing completely.
Humn, actually the planter needs to be in proportion to said giants herbs, and those, in turn, would be in proportion to him. This is closer to accuracy than the planter in proportion to giant understanding since that really doesn’t say anything: our giant could be planting grass for all we know (maybe he’s a wierd giant).
Wow, this opens up a completely new can of worms: would grass be to us what herbs are to said giant – proportionally speaking?
I am blowing myself away here.
Btw If we don’t sort out these matters then giants will never visit again. Giancarlo has already left a terrible first impression as it is. . .