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"Exodus: Gods and Kings" is poised to be a winter blockbuster, but the Hollywood film isn't the only epic drawing on the Biblical tale. The Pillar of Fire, a new sculpture in Washington, D.C., draws its inspiration from the Book of Exodus, and serves to honor healthcare workers on the front lines of the AIDS pandemic.
Located at the site of the old Whitman Walker Clinic at 14th Street and S Street, the sculpture is the creation of William Cochran, an artist known for his large-scale site-specific public art projects, and features 370 layers of cut and polished float glass post-tensioned into a concrete base with concrete footing. At night the work is illuminated to reveal slowly changing colors to represent an abstraction of the rainbow flag, according to promotional materials.
In Exodus, the Pillar of Fire was a manifestation of the divine, which guided the lost Israelites at night during their...