Korean War Veterans Memorial, Washington DC

The Koreans War Veterans Memorial features 19 stainless steel, larger than life statues of soldiers in full combat gear depicted as a troop of soldiers climbing an inhospitable Korean terrain, symbolised by juniper bushes and strips of granite. The statues are, of course, outside, and their images are reflected in an adjacent wall so that it actually looks as though there are 38 soldiers, representing the 38th Parallel. The statues, created by Frank Gaylord, form an awe-inspiring and moving tribute to the many young men who fought for South Korea's independence in the 1950s. The fibre optic lighting of the statues was designed by Absolute Action to illuminate the expressions on the soldiers' faces and ensure that the statues were perfectly reflected in the adjacent wall without any fixtures and fittings being visible to detract from the impact of the memorial in any way.

The intensity of the illumination and size of the light aperture are independently adjustable with critical accuracy from a single optical head output fitting. Despite greatly varying distances from output to object, each statue's face was exactly framed, and lit to precisely the same level.