The Eye of the Sun, Modern landmark in Ashdod, Israel.
The Eye of the Sun is an 18-metre-high sculpture by Motti Mizrachi standing at the centre of Jubilee Circle, a roundabout in Ashdod's Tet Vav quarter near the Riviera beach. Its giant lens has a yellow eastern face for the sun and a silver-grey western face for the moon, with a smaller translucent glass lens set in the middle. The lens sits on a grey stone dome 30 metres across, inside an elliptical roundabout 150 metres long and 55 metres wide; the materials are a metal frame with two-layer aluminium cladding, glass and stainless steel.
In 2006 the Ashdod Development Company invited artists to propose a monument for Jubilee Square, and Motti Mizrachi's design won. His Eye of the Sun was built as a giant lens on a grey stone dome 30 metres across, set in an elliptical traffic circle 150 metres long and 55 metres wide. In November 2023 it was lit yellow in solidarity with Israelis held hostage in Gaza.
The name comes from the design, which recalls a setting sun and an eye. The lens has a yellow east side for the sun and a silver-grey west side for the moon, with a smaller translucent glass lens at the centre. In November 2023 the sculpture was lit in yellow, together with Kikar HaMifrasim, in solidarity with the Israelis kidnapped to Gaza.
The sculpture stands in the centre of a traffic circle in the Tet Vav (15th) quarter of southern Ashdod, next to the Riviera beach, so it is seen from the road rather than entered. The circle is elliptical, about 150 metres long and 55 metres wide. At night the work is lit in changing colours.
The sculpture's eastern face is yellow, standing for the sun, while its western face is silver-grey, standing for the moon. A smaller semi-transparent glass lens sits at the centre of both sides, and at certain angles of day and night the sun and moon seem to be swallowed into this latticed eye.
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