Lateral Sky View — Denis Pelli Art

Lateral Sky View 2021

The sky’s beauty is typically appreciated by looking up, and from a vantage point with a clear view of the sky. But neuroscientist Denis Pelli has managed to capture New York City’s sky with a site-specific art installation that requires neither.

Designed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lateral Sky View explores our vital but tenuous connection to the world outside through an imperfect parabolic mirror (60”×50”×51”) installed in the basement floor of clothing retailer Morgane Le Fay.

Parabolic mirror, hanging on a wall next to stairs, displaying a blue and chrome reflection with many dark lines intersecting, creating an abstract image.

A three quarter side-view of a parabolic mirror, hanging on a wall, displaying a blue and chrome reflection with many dark lines intersecting, creating an abstract image.

A person seated at a table viewing a parabolic mirror, hanging on a wall next to stairs, displaying a chrome reflection with many lighter lines intersecting, creating an abstract image.

Parabolic mirror, hanging on a wall, displaying a blue and chrome reflection with many dark lines intersecting, creating an abstract image.

The work allows us to see the sky’s full brightness by looking not up, but, rather, straight ahead while submerged in a subterranean space. The view, through a skylight at the top of a stairwell, includes the black grating of a century-old fire escape and a neighboring red brick building—hovering in the air with no visible support. By watching the sky evolve throughout the day, and moving around the room, we can appreciate its enormity while feeling the limits of current restrictions.

“Growing up with architects, I always knew that light and space matter,” says Pelli, son of celebrated architects Cesar Pelli and Diana Balmori. “I knew that having daylight in this space would make it a better place to be. Lateral Sky View lets the viewer stop and notice the beauty of New York’s sky. Really observing the world around us is key to both art and science.”

A side view of a parabolic mirror, hanging on a wall, revealing its wooden side construction.

A view down a flight of stairs, revealing the parabolic mirror, hanging on a wall below. The photographers two feet can be seen in the bottom of the image.

Parabolic mirror, hanging on a wall, displaying a chrome reflection with many dark and light lines intersecting, creating an abstract image.

Press Release

Pelli, a professor at NYU, developed the concept for Lateral Sky View when he accompanied Liliana Casabal, the fashion designer behind the Morgane Le Fay brand, to visit a potential new store site. He noted the windowless white space on the subterranean level.

Concerned that “people working there would want daylight in the room,” Pelli crafted a parabolic cylindrical mirror, set at a 45-degree angle to the wall, reflecting the skylight a floor above. The effect is a free-floating bit of the New York City sky, a window-portal that brings the sky into an otherwise windowless room. The slowly passing clouds, the rhythm of the day’s passage to night, and the fading light as dusk darkens the city — all are made visible at eye level of the beholder.

Parabolic mirror, hanging on a wall next to stairs, displaying a chrome reflection with many dark lines intersecting, creating an abstract image.

A red line drawing of a triangle with six small circle inside of it, depicting the side view of the parabolic mirror.

Museum wall text that reads; “ Denis Pelli, American Artist born in 1953. Lateral Sky View 2020, Acrylic mirror, corrugated cardboard and plywood. The forty five degree cylindric mirror has a four meter focal length, and thus focuses parallel rays o…

A graphic chart describing how the light reflects from the skylight to the viewer in the parabolic mirror.

Lateral Sky View is on display, seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Morgane Le Fay’s SoHo location (150 Greene St. at W. Houston St. in New York City) through March 31. For more information, please call 212.219.7672.