Completed in 2002, the new building of Heustadlgasse secondary school designed by Henke Schreieck Architekten features a light installation by Waltraut Cooper. Her Band of Light runs from the entrance of the school grounds, through the courtyard and along a green pergola, culminating in the main hall. The installation consists of rectangular plastic panels, each in a single colour and concealing a fluorescent tube, that form a continuous band of light in the spectrum of the rainbow. Although grounded in a strict conceptual framework in its interplay with the school’s sleek, award-winning architecture, Cooper’s use of colour introduces a pictorial dimension, and the rainbow theme infuses a sense of playfulness.
For Cooper, the rainbow formed in light unites times, places and people, standing as a symbol of peace and hope.
By 2022, the approximately 80m-long artwork had suffered the effects of time, prompting the decision to undertake a comprehensive restoration to both revive the light band’s radiance and update its materials with modern, resource- and cost-efficient solutions. The fluorescent tubes were replaced with LEDs, and coloured acrylic glass was used to update the panels. The artist herself was involved in these decisions and advised the project team, and since 2024 the installation has been restored to its original brilliance.
Waltraut Cooper, born in Linz in 1937, studied art, mathematics and theoretical physics in Vienna, Paris (Sorbonne), Lisbon and Frankfurt (Städelschule). She has held teaching positions at the University of California in Santa Barbara and the University of Art and Design Linz. Her often expansive light installations have been shown worldwide, infusing façades, stairwells, bodies of water and stadiums with coloured light. She has also presented her work at the Venice Biennale four times.
Cooper draws on mathematical principles in her art, creating clear, restrained, mostly geometric forms that merge constructive logic with poetic sensibility. She regards her light installations as metaphors for life and optimism.