Our ‘Sundial of the Month’ for February is the Yellow Sundial which sits at Port Richmond High School, Staten Island, New York.
Designed by artist Robert Adzema, the 18-feet-high yellow painted steel sundial sculpture is reminiscent of the rudder of a merchant ship and reflects the nautical location of the school. It was installed October 1994.
Telling the time on its East and South faces, the sundial features a brass noon mark and analemma (a graph to correct solar and clock time) cast into the plaza below. An aperture at the top of the dial illuminates each day of the year at noon solar time.
The position of the sundial emphasises the North-South axis of the site, while the bright yellow colour used for the structure was chosen to make shadows cast easily visible. An aperture near the top of the sundial casts a beam of light on the ground that crosses the north-south line, marking high noon in solar time.
Artist Adzema said of the sundial,
“If I have succeeded as an artist with this project, it will affect the lives of those people who pass it daily, offering inspiration, inviting someone to pause in their day, consider their place in relation to the world at large, to notice sunlight and shadow, to try and understand it’s geometry, and maybe even suggesting a direction, an idea to steer by.”
