Shedding âLightâ on My Love of Lights (Work In Progress)
The use of light has been a major aspect of my practice for nearly three years now and I feel that there are a few people who know it is an obsession I have, but they donât have much background as to why. Well, I have decided I would elaborate on this love of everything bright and colourful for the means of explaining myself to you and maybe help myself focus in on why I feel I can spend the next three years working with it.
Firstly, light in its broadest sense is a necessity for life to exist, without it we wouldnât be here; itâs as simple as that, therefore it has been a part of my life since I took my first breath. But if I focus in on why I use it in my practice it comes down to a few key points.
One reason I am fascinated by light is actually rather childish and makes me sound sort of like a magpie; but, basically I find light so attractive. Light just seems to draw me in, no matter where I am, lights have this effect on me where it can, and will, grab my attention and hold it there for quite some time and I feel that this is maybe one of the main reasons why I use light in my work. As artists we like to portray and idea of beauty, whether it is through drawing someone we find beautiful [resisting urge to include that bloody Titanic reference here] or an expressive painting of a landscape. Using light in my work is my of portraying some of the beauty of the world around me, and doing so through the use of artificial lights, such as the Fluorescents Iâm so fond of, or by manipulating natural light and using this within the work.
Furthermore, when it comes to artwork that uses light, each time you install the same work into a new space or even just at a later date, it will without a doubt be different to the first time. There is an endless list of variables that can change the way the work is perceived which then makes the install of the work all the more exciting just so you can see how the work will appear this time around. Factors such as the size of the space, the light already within the space (natural or otherwise), the age of the bulbs (if youâre using artificial light), the time of year, the time of day etc, etc, etc. These all change the way in which the install looks and feels for the viewer which then makes it so much more interesting as an artist than just taking a painting from one place to another and I realise that statement may upset you painters because âthe lighting of the room can change the impression of a paintingâ and to that, I agree it can do, but the actually make up of the painting is always the same where as with light itâs not as concrete.
Another reason for my interest in light comes down to the science behind it. Light is so complex for something that seems hardly so. By that I refer to the light spectrum; light is made up of âwavesâ, these âwavesâ have different wavelengths and of these, the human eye can only register a fraction of them all. For âvisible lightâ to actually be visible takes even more complexity when you understand the construction of the human eye and the conversion of this light into information that your brain can understand and translate to you. It is just so amazing when you then begin to consider that colour can only exist due to this white light and as an object is hit by white light the colour the object appears to be, is the wavelengths of light that have been reflected off of the object. When you take this into account it seems silly not to have such a love for it.
I guess in conclusion to all that is I find that there is simple elegance to light that can change the way we feel purely by its presence which makes it such an exciting media to use. The first time I seen artwork that was made up of lights and lights alone was without a doubt the first time I truly fell in love with an artwork and from that point forward I began to dream up pieces of work that would need light just so I could start using it in sixth form and now that I have the ability to use light to my heartâs content here in University I can say without a doubt that I am going to enjoy the next two years of the course and with luck the rest of my time as an artist.
