What Is That Thing? 'Twilight Of The Dawn'

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — It turns out there's a reason the slightly out of place structure perched on a slight rise at Ruby Dee Park at Library Green in downtown New Rochelle sort of resembles a spaceship.

R.M. Fischer, the world-renowned artist who created the now-famous sculpture for Sony Studio's Los Angeles headquarters, was inspired in part by science fiction themes. In fact, Fisher renamed the 13,000 pound sculpture "Twilight of the Dawn" in honor of a quote from famed science fiction writer H.G. Wells shortly before it was relocated from it original Hollywood home.

“The past is the beginning of the beginning and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn."

Fischer has said that the movie studio commissioned work, originally titled "The Wading Pool" was intended to serve as an homage to the utopia Shangri-La from the novel Lost Horizon. The solar lights that illuminate the domed gleaming metalwork from the inside at its place of honor in the heart of New Rochelle still evoke an image of a paradise oasis.

The unique public artwork was a gift to the New Rochelle Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) from Fischer.

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"Moving from a commercial plaza to a landscaped community park, the artwork has been transformed," Fischer said when the installation was dedicated at its permanent New Rochelle home in 2017. "It will take on a whole new character. As an artist, to see my work take on a new life is inspiring. It is fitting that its new home, downtown New Rochelle, is also being transformed."

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