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0/90/120 is a site-specific intervention composed of luminous, reflective surfaces that shift in color inside the historic Palm Springs home of the late architect William F. Cody (1916–1978), noted for his distinct style of midcentury Desert Modernism. A home for his family, and a laboratory for architectural minimalism where Cody achieved his goal of structural purity, the house has been stripped of furniture and any indication of domesticity in order to serve as an armature for light. Organized across its 3,000 square feet, the durational work consists of 11 reflective and color shifting volumes creating four distinct floor-to-ceiling compositions. The volumes are positioned at 0, 90, or 120 degrees, resulting in varying combinations of overlapping color. Viewers enter the home at sunset, when the volumes reflect and tint the environment and the glass of the home extends the perceived boundaries of the structure. At dusk, the light of the installation grows in intensity and the home’s glass becomes reflective, extending the boundaries of Smith’s light. “After the sun drops behind Mount San Jacinto and the quality of reflection begins to diminish within the artwork, the color comes forward,” says the artist. “At the same time, the glass of the home inverts, becoming naturally reflective. It’s these two qualities that combine to dissolve the house into an abstract space of color.” Organized by the studio of the artist, the work continues his interests in transparency/translucency, opacity, and reflection and to realizing a new kind of architectural installation and space for the public “that is not real.” 0/90/120 refers to the various angles of the planes placed within the home: parallel planes placed at 0 degrees, 90 degrees to create an intimate seemingly infinite space for light, and 120 to create a third reflective plane of light that realigns with the orthogonal reality of the home. Each of these angles results in a varying combination of color occurring solely within a reflective space for color and past the surface of the glass.
