Sun Stories by Nite
Giralda Plaza’s Summer Installation
By Lizzie Wilcox
July/August 2019
After last summer’s unforgettable Umbrella Sky, Sun Stories is the latest public art installation to hit Giralda Plaza. Created by Miami artist Jessy Nite, Sun Stories consists of large, multicolored plexiglass words and phrases that are projected by the sun onto the walkway below.
This isn’t Nite’s first typography-based project. For about 10 years she has been doing “sun installations” both locally – at the Soho Beach House – and internationally – at the Liesing Transit Hub in Vienna.
While those projects are just one phrase, Sun Stories “picks up” where those shorter pieces left off. “It feels so great to see it come alive,” says Nite. “I think at first people are looking at it because they want to see what it says, but now there’s all these elements, projecting light onto trees and people and clothing and tables.”
To see the words clearly, Nite advises visiting during the middle of the day when the sun is at its peak. She herself likes to go either in the morning or the late afternoon when the phrases are illegible, but cast a long, colorful shadow. “It’s really fun to see how these pieces perform,” she says. The words in red are from a long-form poem that she wrote about Coral Gables, which will appear in a kid-friendly zine available at various events for Sun Stories throughout the summer.