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

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Contemporary Work by David Bachelor

Candelabra 3 on display at the Bloomberg Space
(click on the image to see it larger)







Barrier 2002

posted by Lynda Cornwell @ 1:41 pm 5 comments

Fluorescence and Flooding Light






Dan Flavin's work with fluorescent tubes is spectacular - see it at the Hayward Gallery now
http://www.hayward.org.uk/ . The picture above shows an installation at The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York from 1992.

posted by Lynda Cornwell @ 10:38 am 0 comments

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

Monday, March 06, 2006

Light Works!

These are some examples of using light to make fleeting, ephemeral drawings - all very different.

Walter De Maria's 'Lightning Field'.

Tim Noble and Sue Webster's 'Miss Understood and Mr Meanor' (destroyed in the warehouse fire in 2005), and 'Fountain' 2004.



And finally two of my own drawings - with an overhead projector and a sparkler drawing.



posted by Lynda Cornwell @ 5:19 pm 2 comments

Using light?

It came to me in a blinding flash (excuse the pun - actually it was something that Sue said) that I should be looking not at my working process but at using light in my work.

This is something I have been fascinated by for some time, and feel drawn to. A problem with researching the historical context may be that light has only been used in art since the middle of the last century. How far back can I trace the use of light?

To answer my own question, at least in part, I can probably go back thousands of years - stained glass windows use light to cast beautiful colour bands over gloomy interiors, and who knows, I may find that the ancient world used light in some way to decorate or illustrate their world. Does anyone have other suggestions?

Last week I saw a work by David Bachelor (Candelabra 3) at the Bloomberg Space and a comment from that exhibition really says it all for me, "Once immersed in the light and hue generated by his works, the viewer can, in Bachelor's view, become 'transported'."

Details of the exhibition can be found at http://about.bloomberg.com/about/ourco/space/index.html

posted by Lynda Cornwell @ 11:18 am 2 comments