“Drawn by Light”; Lights, Wires, Computer Control Board; 30´ W x 40´ L
This installation consisted of five concentric circles which were created out of lights that were hanging from the ceiling. The circles, ranging from 15´ to 26´ in diameter, were “drawn” freehand (instead of being perfect circles drawn with a compass), and were then connected together like a spiral. All together 144 light bulbs hung from the ceiling. They were equally spaced from one another, but each hung at a different height; ranging from 5″ up to 114″ from the floor.
The lights, controlled through a pre-programmed computer board, went on and off at different intervals so that at any given moment there was only one light bulb that would be on. The entire program/ “orchestration”, consisted of several different “actions” which were programmed to go on at random. For example one “act” involved the lights flashing at random without any recognizable pattern throughout the gallery. Another action included a number of the lights flashing one right after the next to “draw out” the shape of a circle. The lights were installed in such a way as to project multiple shadows of the viewer on the wall one after the other. This effect, similar to a zoetrope, gave the appearance of moving shadows on the walls.
In this installation, one stepped into a dark space, and similar to Plato´s cave, was surrounded by moving shadows. One remained in darkness except for those instances when a light flashed on and made the invisible visible. These were like momentary flashes of inspiration/ enlightenment that made known the unknown. At the moments when these flashes of inspiration were freely circling around the center of the room, all the four corners were simultaneously illuminated leaving no point of darkness. These points of light in their travel around the room, echoed and reflected the same law that governs our universe and the cosmos in the way that our earth, moon, and the sun go around and around one another in their continuous dance.
With Special Thanks to Guy Marsden