Gyrator @ Giant City State Park
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trailhound1
N 37° 35.565 W 089° 11.048
16S E 307171 N 4162874
Gyrator perches atop a sandstone bluff in Southern Illinois' Giant City State Park. The sculpture's concrete base features noon and seasonal markers that measure the daily rotation of earth and the annual orbit of the sun.
Waymark Code: WM9WYM
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 10/07/2010
Views: 7
Crafted under a commission from the Art Program of the State of Illinois, "Gyrator" takes the form of a synthesis between giant top and a gyroscope. Alignments built into the concrete pad record the gyrations of the heavens as created by the circadian and annual motion of the earth. The sun marks noon each day as a disk of light falls between two parallel lines cut into the concrete. The same disk of light rings bronze plaques embedded in the concrete at the start of each season.
The artisan spent many days wandering the grounds of the park with his family and conceived of this sculpture as both tool and implement like the tops and gyroscopes he played with then. In creating "Gyrator" he pictured parent and child visiting the sculpture and discussing the astronomy of the sculpture.
Title: Gyrator: Geometry and Time in Environmental Sculpture
Artist: Stephen Luecking
Placement Date: 1990
Type of Object: Giant Top
Location: Giant Scity State Park, Makanda, Illinois
Material: painted steel, concrete, sandstone and bronze
Website: Not listed
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