Light on last rites: imaginative understanding of materials makes this tomb a fitting set for rites of passage.Manuel Clavel Rojo's moving mausoleum mausoleum (môsəlē`əm), a sepulchral structure or tomb, especially one of some size and architectural pretension, so called from the sepulcher of that name at Halicarnassus, Asia Minor, erected (c.352 B.C. in the wooded La Alberca cemetery on the edge of Murcia in Spain has already been celebrated in these pages (AR August 2004, p58). So it was happy to find that the international jury enthusiastically agreed with the judgement of the editors in highly commending the little building's deep understanding of materials and their symbolic (and practical) importance in the rituals of death and internment internment, in international law, detention of the nationals or property of an enemy or a belligerent. A belligerent will intern enemy merchant ships or take them as prize, and a neutral should intern both belligerent ships that fail to leave its ports within a . A simple rusted steel cross in front of a little tower made of thin slate and glass sheets piled one above another, unmortared, with slightly rough edges overlooks a thick onyx slab, and a thin ornamental pool through which flowing water quietly trickles. Both pool and onyx are on a travertine travertine (trăv`ərtĭn, –tēn), form of massive calcium carbonate, CaCO3, resulting from deposition by springs or rivers. block that the architect calls 'an altar where burial occurs'. The tiny slate and glass building covers the head of the stairs down to the burial chamber itself. Its entrance is through a tall thin hardwood door on the opposite side and lower down than the travertine block, so that when the door is opened, slightly sparkling light penetrates the chamber through the stacked glass plates. It constantly alters and shimmers as clouds and sun move. This light is augmented by flickering luminance The amount of brightness, measured in lumens, that is given off by a pixel or area on a screen. For example, dark red and bright red would have the same chrominance, but a different luminance. from the glass base of the pool that causes faster transience and rippling of intensity. These two light sources are supplemented by the warmer and much more diffuse radiance that comes through the onyx slab. In the ritual of internment, the slab is rolled back from the sepulchre SEPULCHRE. The place where a corpse is buried. The violation of sepulchres is a misdemeanor at common law. Vide Dead bodies. and the coffin is lowered down to the chamber below. At night, if the internal lights are on, luminance works in reverse, with the little tower a shimmering shim·mer intr.v. shim·mered, shim·mer·ing, shim·mers 1. To shine with a subdued flickering light. See Synonyms at flash. 2. lighthouse behind the silhouette of the cross. A soft radiance rises through the pool and the onyx. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The jury was moved by the subtlety, dignity and austere gentleness of the composition, which demonstrates an assured use of materiality MATERIALITY. That which is important; that which is not merely of form but of substance. 2. When a bill for discovery has been filed, for example, the defendant must answer every material fact which is charged in the bill, and the test in these cases seems to , space and light. |
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