In some ways, Rosol materializes the work of the California Light and Space group, artists such as James Turrell (b. 1943), who used light projections to impersonate physical space and who felt art was more about our perceptions than the objects being perceived. Though Rosol understands how optical illusion and shifting perspective can enhance seeing, he is still a glassmaker and lover of architecture who is fundamentally rooted in materiality. The elegant Luxor recalls the ancient Egyptian temple for which it is named but is a thoroughly futuristic envisioning of the earlier structure. Many Egyptian buildings employed illusionism, such as how the two obelisks flanking the entrance to the original Luxor Temple (one of which is now in the Place de la Concorde, Paris) seem to be, but are not in fact, the same height. Like the ancient temple, Rosol’s Luxor is a similarly cosmic monument, not to an ancient Egyptian deity but to light itself.
