Commissioned by the Simons Foundation, Lia Halloran’s 10-by-11-foot painted cyanotype, Solar, is now installed, suspended between two floors, at the Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Astrophysics in New York. Generally titled, Solar, this piece draws on research of both contemporary and archival research-based images of the sun. Halloran wanted an image that would invite many aspects relevant to astrophysics. One commonality in the universe between black holes and expanding universe lies in its stars, as this piece not only refers to our own sun, but also to a universe made of many suns.

Halloran is dedicated to connecting imagery to the concept. In this case, the piece is of a star, but is also created by the light from our own star. The three-phase process used to create this piece began with a a 12-foot by 10-foot painting on drafting film that was used as a negative transparency for the final positive print, exposed from the original painting in the intermediary process of creating the cyanotype. The third and final process is Halloran then painting upon the rich blue cyanotype to add additional surface texture and detail.