For people who live in extreme latitudes, winter is a long, dark affair, with the sun hiding below the horizon for several months till spring finally comes around.
Some people are able to handle it, though for others the lack of sunlight can bring on symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) – irritableness, despair, depression, you get the idea.
With the northern reaches of Norway plunged into darkness each winter, local artists Lisa Pacini and Christine Istad know better than most how the lack of light can affect the minds of those living in such locations.
So in a bid to bring a little sunshine into people’s lives, the pair created a three-meter-wide circular light sculpture comprising a mass of LED lights that together glow gently across a range of warm colors.
With their ‘sun’ loaded on the back of an open truck, the artists have been touring around Norway for the past year – often enduring harsh weather and treacherous road conditions – visiting places such as Norway’s Tromsø City, a place that has no sunlight or visible sun from November 22 to January 21.
Their creation also made an appearance at the UK’s London Design Festival last week.
From next month until April 2014, the artists’ sun will hang on the second floor façade of The Culture House in Rjukan, Norway – a small town surrounded by mountains that block out direct sunlight for six months of the year – casting a ray of sunshine across the town and no doubt putting a smile on the faces of those that pass by.
Below: The sun arriving in the Norwegian town of Bergen by ship in March this year.
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