POETRY OF ECLIPSE

 

Where spectacle often masquerades as depth, James Tapscott has quietly built a practice defined by restraint. His work resists technological bravura in favor of something rarer: a genuine encounter with the sublime. The latest iteration of his ongoing Arc ZERO series, Eclipse, recently unveiled in Seoul and awarded Design of the Year by the LIT Lighting Design Awards, marks a measured and confident refinement of his artistic language.

Tapscott’s practice is grounded in elemental collaboration. Light, mist, water, and gravity are not effects to be engineered but forces allowed to behave as themselves. His installations do not demand attention. They ask for patience. They unfold slowly, heightening awareness of space, breath, and presence. Eclipse distills this philosophy with clarity and restraint.

The work appears as a half ring hovering above water, its circular form completed by reflection. At night, the structure seems to float, emitting soft plumes of illuminated mist that blur its edges. The result is contemplative rather than theatrical, a quiet suspension where perception softens and time briefly loosens its hold.

While earlier Arc ZERO works such as Nimbus, first installed in Japan in 2017, leaned toward immersive architectural gestures, Eclipse shifts focus toward visual tension and spatial ambiguity. Its bespoke diamond profile minimizes reflection, preventing the viewer from encountering their own image. Attention remains fixed on atmosphere, light, and the subtle choreography of movement.

Throughout his career, Tapscott has returned to a single question: how might art reconnect us with natural phenomena in an increasingly mediated world. Eclipse offers no spectacle and no instruction. It simply exists, quietly luminous, asking only for presence.

www.studio-jt.net

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