An investigation into the use of light in art from stained glass windows to fluorescent tubes

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Why do some light works have a very different effect?

In looking again at the images in my previous post I see huge differences in the effects of light. Generally, light projected away excludes the viewer and is something that is merely observed, whereas light that emanates from something approaches, and even casts a colour over, the viewer.

Going further still, light that passes through coloured panels, eg stained glass, bathes the viewer in colour and has a powerful effect on the psyche. See the gorgeous examples at the Bovard Studio website:

http://bovardstudio.com/gallery/contemporary.aspx


Liam Gillick used perspex panels to produce a similar effect in his Turner Prize nomination of 2002.




Below is an image of a pane of glass etched by myslef and light projected through it.

Although the light is projected it bounces back off the wall towards the viewer - bathing the eyes in colour if not the whole person. I also took a movie, since the light source has a rotating colour wheel causing the colours to change; I have not worked out how to post movies as yet though - my first attempts failed! More later.

posted by Lynda Cornwell @ 11:12 pm

2 Comments:

At 8:49 pm, Blogger Unknown said...

Lynda:

I really like your blog - It's full of colour and light. I think that the red reflective piece/drawing you just made really works and creates a very interesting environment. Yes, I can see that creating a movie could give the viewer a better sense of being and movement. The light and shadows will constantly change thus the atmosphere of the piece, equally if you are able to use other light coloured bulbs to create different moods in your audience.

Thanks for your earlier comments on my blog. Yes, I will be including some more photos of my sketchbook and I also thought that working with rags or material will work in the same way.

 
At 4:00 pm, Blogger Lynda Cornwell said...

Just looking back through these images and I noticed something that I haven't really paid attention to before - the image on the glass shows the line I drew in pva as clear, but dark, whereas the projected image shows the same line as lighter than the surround.

A positive and negative image again, like the afterimage of the sparkler drawing I made for my TRACE project.

 

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