color-shifting light sculpture suspends above orchestra at walt disney concert hall

RADIANCE Translates Fire Into Light at Walt Disney Concert Hall

RADIANCE is a light sculpture installation by Grimanesa Amorós, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and presented at Walt Disney Concert Hall across three consecutive performances. Conceived to accompany Alexander Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, Op. 60 (1910), the work takes fire as its subject, resolving into the form of a pulsing spark suspended above the orchestra.

The installation draws on two cultural references: Prometheus, who gave fire to humanity, and Viracocha, the Incan creator deity. Together, they frame light as a carrier of knowledge and a medium of transformation. Amorós, a Peruvian-born American artist, has worked with light as both material and language since 2002, with RADIANCE extending this approach to an architectural scale.

Programmable LED Light Sculpture Responds to the Orchestra

Measuring 60 × 35 × 5 feet (18.29 × 10.67 × 1.52 meters), the installation is constructed from reflective material, color-shifting rope-like LED tubing, and custom electrical hardware. A lighting sequence written specifically for the work controls its changing illumination.

A central aspect of the commission is the integration of the sculpture with Walt Disney Concert Hall’s existing house lighting. Artist Grimanesa Amorós programmed both systems as a single lighting environment, connecting the suspended sculpture with the architecture and the performance rather than treating it as an isolated object within the space.

The sequence was composed second by second in relation to the orchestra and develops through six major synchronized moments. The lighting of the sculpture, the concert hall, and the performance therefore progress as a coordinated system throughout the work.

project info:

name: RADIANCE
artist: Grimanesa Amorós | @grimanesaamoros

venue: Walt Disney Concert Hall

location: Los Angeles, US

commissioned by: LA Philharmonic

dimensions: 60 × 35 × 5 feet (18.29 × 10.67 × 1.52 meters)

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