The predawn light silhouetting a solar power plant in the Nevada desert looked spectacular this week, not just because I was actually in New York, but because the whole concept was like a looking glass into another world. The Public Art Fund has done it again! After building an elevated living room around the statue of Christopher in Columbus Circle two years ago, one wondered what new worlds the Fund would discover. This year, their imaginative installation on show at the Lincoln Plaza takes you on a journey with an Irish artist called John Gerrard, who has created a simulated world around a solar thermal power tower. The isolated tower is fed by 10,000 mirrors that adjust their position in real time and reflect light upon the tower to generate electricity.  The power tower really exists. What John has created is the world around the Tower – the light, the moon, the stars and the sun. Starting on the ground surrounded by solar panels, the viewer is virtually swept in a spiralling motion up and around the tower into the sky, and just as you hover completely overhead, the downward spiral begins. Over the course of the day the thousands of mirrors following the sun create fantastic lighting effects. My plan was to wait and witness a Nevada sunrise, but simulated reality combined with differing time zones between here and there left me in the dark. Fortunately there was another alternative. Amy’s Bakery was just around the corner, and their raisin and fennel sunflowers were shining regardless…