An ultra-bright neon rainbow will light up and set in motion the New Year in Los Angeles’ downtown jewelry district at Pershing Square on Jan. 22. Michael Hayden’s iconic light sculpture, “Generators of the Cylinder” will be re-lit for the first time in nearly a decade during a special ceremony at the International Jewelry Center from 4 to 6 p.m. The refurbishment of the sculpture represents a glowing outlook for public art in downtown Los Angeles. Hayden, as a light artist, is famous for transforming corridors with neon light, most notably the Chicago O’Hare International Airport. A reception will immediately follow the ceremony.

The neon sculpture is a 270-foot-long chain of holographically etched polycarbonate semi-cylinders that are informed by infrared sensors and a hidden computer. The result is a light show in which pedestrians see their movements reflected back to them in green, yellow, blue, orange, pink, purple and red flashes and swirls.

“Aesthetically, the beautiful, fascinating and dazzling sculpture will be the jewelry center’s saving grace,” wrote Los Angeles Times architecture and design critic John Dreyfuss when the building, and the sculpture, debuted in 1982.

“The greatest challenge in keeping the sculpture in light, in downtown Los Angeles, is less about keeping it functional and more about keeping it decontaminated from airborne detritus,” Hayden said.

For more than four decades, Hayden has utilized and manipulated light in architectonic scaled sculptures. Works by Hayden are in the public collections of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Museum of Neon Art, Glendale; the Van Abba Museum, Eindhoven, Holland and the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland. The artist resides in Santa Rosa, California with his wife, Kristina Lucas, also a sculptor.

The Los Angeles International Jewelry Center is located downtown at 550 S. Hill Street, Los Angeles.