The arcs that hang down from the reflective disc at the centre of this pavilion are made of ropes. The ends disappear through the surface of the mirror into a ring-shaped basin on its back.
To create the formations that cling to the ropes, salt water from the nearby lagoon is first reduced through evaporation in a circular vessel located to one side, in order to increase the salinity of the water. The water is then pumped up into the basin above the mirror, where it seeps into the cotton fibres of the ropes and further evaporates, leaving a sculptural crust of salt on the ropes.
The formations are reflected in the mirror’s surface, which completes the curves of the ropes into full rings floating in the virtual space of the mirror. This illusion recurs in The complete sphere lamp series, 2015, concurrently on display in the National Museum of Qatar.