Charlotte, North Carolina, is largely powered by Duke Energy. Literally but, thanks to a new public art installation by Depeña Studio, figuratively, too. The utility company com­missioned the work for its head­quarters plaza downtown, where founder Ivan Toth Depeña drew on his interpre­tation of the photon, the small­est particle of electromagnetic energy, aka light.

The result, Photon/s, consists of two sculptures that soar 32 and 37 feet high, with 11 rays bursting from each centroid in a 20-­ and 30-­foot diameter, re­spectively. The rays approach contact, which Depeña says “plays with the idea of connec­tivity at the atomic and sub­atomic level, where theoreti­cally nothing actually touches.” Weighing 3,500 pounds collec­tively, they’re anchored in a 10-foot­-square, 5-­foot­-deep concrete foundation and comprise steel armatures encased in high ­density EPS foam wrapped in woven glass fiber cloth, coated with resin, sanded smooth, and finished with a fluoropolymer coating. Each arm is capped with a node of white LEDs that blinks in a nonrepeating pattern, together creating the effect of embers in a campfire.

A third burst appears as a 40­-by­-60­-foot silhouette in Duke Energy’s facade beyond. Here, more than 3,000 LEDs pulse in a looping pattern. “The light bounces off the surrounding buildings, creating a choreography of reflecting and refracting within the plaza volume,” Depeña adds. Cables threading throughout all three sculptures deliver power and data, enabling Photon/s to send actual photons into the evening sky.