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CNN Live Sunday

Artist Transforms Lighthouse

Aired June 09, 2002 - 18:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: For generations, they were warning signals, steering sailors away from the shore. Today, they're lonely towers, extinguished beacons nearly forgotten. Now, Washington is putting 301 lighthouses up for sale. CNN's Brian Cabell tells the story of one of them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Journey by boat just a few miles east of Charleston, and you'll see it. In the distance, just beyond the marshes, the Morris Island Lighthouse, still rising 158 feet from its base, but abandoned 40 years ago, almost forgotten. Ships don't need it anymore. They use GPS instead.

Kim Sooja, a Korean artist who works in various media, was commissioned by the Spoleto Arts Festival to somehow revive the 126- year-old lighthouse.

KIM SOOJA, ARTIST: The body of the lighthouse looked so lonely. That's what I first felt about. And so it seems like waiting for something all the time.

CABELL: She compares the lighthouse to a woman at the water's edge, waiting for her lover to return from the sea.

The lighthouse is now actually an island unto itself. Erosion has washed the rest of it away. At one time, Morris Island encompassed hundreds of acres.

It was the scene of a climactic Civil War battle, involving the African-American 54th Massachusetts Regiment, depicted in the movie "Glory." Now, decades later, the island's all but gone, leaving behind only a few seagulls and sand bars, along with the faded brick lighthouse that tilts slightly toward the sea.

Sooja came up with a plan for the lighthouse. She would light it with colors at night, and transform it into a work of art.

(on camera): On June 9, the art project here ends. The lights will be turned out; the lighthouse will go dark once again. But some citizens are hoping to turn them back on for good.

(voice-over): They're also hoping to prop up the foundation. But that's an engineering problem for the future. For now, just wait until dusk to see Sooja's magic. The colors barely register at first, then brighten as the sky darkens. The lonely lighthouse comes alive.

SOOJA: It's not about the physical body of the lighthouse, but it's about the memory we keep. The lighthouse we keep in our minds.

CABELL: Brian Cabell, CNN, Charleston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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