Sentinel

Sentinel functions as a ceremonial marker at the entrance to the Department of Veterans Affairs in Philadelphia. To create this emblematic sculpture, Clyde Lynds combined the two most recognizable and meaningful symbols of the United States – the American eagle and the flag. This hybrid image was cast by the artist in a concrete specially aggregated to resemble granite.

At night, the surface of Sentinel comes alive with a constellation of tiny lights, which are generated by the fiber optic threads embedded in the concrete. Mechanisms housed within the sculpture’s base direct this luminous ballet. The program of dancing lights culminates in a reconstruction of the night sky as seen from Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. Delicate lines of light that arc across the concrete represent the celestial meridian, zenith, and elliptical plane (the apparent path pf the sun across the sky). The dynamic, nocturnal display repeats over a cycle of several days.

Clyde Lynds maintains his studio in New Jersey, where he was born. The artist has received many other public commissions in cities such as Boston, Chicago, Hartford, and Santa Barbara. His additional works commissioned for GSA are for federal offices in New York and West Virginia; a border station in Nogales, Arizona; and a courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama.