The German premiere
of the DVD installation The Well-Tuned Piano in The Magenta
Lights
87 V 10 6:43:00 PM - 87 V 11 01:07:45 AM NYC set in a site-specific
light environment
created by Marian Zazeela at 'Kunst im Regenbogenstadl,' Polling,
Bavaria.
Artist Statement
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View from the entrance,
Magenta Day / Magenta Night in the large gallery through
the doorway to the neon, Dream House Variation III, in
the sculpture gallery. |
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Ceiling of the large
gallery: Magenta Day / Magenta Night. |
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View of the DVD image
with The Magenta Lights mobiles in
Magenta Day / Magenta Night. |
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La Monte standing in
front of his DVD image on the
large screen in Magenta Day / Magenta Night. |
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View of Borderlines
from Still Light and Dream House Variation III
with Magenta Day / Magenta Night window in sculpture
gallery. |
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The neon, Dream House
Variation III, with
Magenta Day / Magenta Night window in sculpture gallery.
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View of Open Rectangle
from Still Light with
Magenta Day / Magenta Night window in sculpture gallery.
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View of Open Rectangle
and Borderlines from Still Light looking towards
doorway of large gallery. |
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Close view of Open Rectangle from Still Light.
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Close view of Borderlines from Still Light.
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Deam House Variation III. |
STILL LIGHT
In 1985, I began a series of sculptures which extends
to still objects my investigations of the effects of colored light
mixtures on perception. Each sculpture in the series Still Light is
composed of vertical and/or rectangular wooden forms upon which two
symmetrically-placed colored lights are precisely focused to cause
the formation of symmetrical colored shadows within and around the
form. Each variation is determined by the structural characteristics
of the form on which the light is projected, the angle and distance
of the light sources, the interrelation of colors and the position
of the viewer. Over the years, my work in light has proven
to be an experimental continuum in which each creation is not only
important in itself, but often leads to the discovery of surprising
new directions. In comparison to the environmental installations of
colored lights projected on symmetrical arrays of mobiles, the scale
of the Still Light pieces is more intimate and approachable. The technology
that I formalized as a medium with the monumental scale environments
retains its inherent mystery: the magical transformations of adjacent
colored light mixtures. Through the clarity of the still forms, the
classical geometric shapes, and the closer vantage point, the observer
may be better able to unravel the mystery while remaining actively
engaged in the dialogue it poses between reality and illusion, between
viewer and object.
There are two new works in the Regenbogenstadl exhibition.
Open Rectangle initiates a further area of investigation by opening
the horizontal bars at the top and bottom of the mounted rectangular
form, creating additional elements in the resulting shadow overlaps.
Borderlines pursues a direction begun in 1989 with the work Untitled
(R/A), which utilized architectural moulding forms to create very
subtle color variations in the shadows. Previously, I had used pre-fabricated
moulding forms but for this sculpture, I designed the shapes of
the moulding and had them custom cut to my drawings by the master
carpenter in Bavaria. The title, Borderlines, references the multiple
borders appearing in the work, as well as the precise phenomenon
engendered by reading colors across boundaries, which constitutes
a significant component in the physiology of colored light perception.
1. Open Rectangle, 2001
painted wood, fresnel lamps, dichroic glass filters, dimmers
h 140 cm x w 60 cm
190 cm diameter light orb
2. Borderlines, 2001
painted wood, fresnel lamps, dichroic glass filters, dimmers
h 119 cm x w 49.5 cm
210 cm diameter light orb
NEON
The Dream House Variations are direct translations to neon of calligraphic
drawings from the "Portraits" series. In these works I
present names, words or ideas drawn with their bilaterally symmetrical,
retrograde and mirror-inverted images, so that the abstract form
of the written word may be viewed independently from its meaning.
This allows the visual content of the work to be considered both
apart from, and along with, the significance of the word.
Thus far, I have produced three of the possible four
variations of this series. The first was commissioned by Heiner
and Fariha Friedrich and constructed in New York in 1989 for the
one-year Dream House installation at Dia Center for the Arts 22nd
Street. It has been on loan to MELA Foundation and mounted at the
New York Church Street Dream House since 1993.
The second, Dream House Variation II, was produced
in Paris in 1992 for the Dream House exhibition at Espace Donguy.
It was purchased by the French Cultural Ministry and remains in
the collection of the FNAC. It was most recently exhibited in St.
Joseph Chapel, Avignon as part of the DVD installation of The Well-Tuned
Piano in The Magenta Lights in the La Beaute international exhibition
from May through September, 2000.
Dream House Variation III was constructed for the Dream
House installation La Monte and I created in 1992 at the Ruine der
Kunste in the Dahlem district of Berlin. It was originally made
for outdoor display and was mounted on the upper facade of the Ruine
building, visible through the neighborhood for some distance, much
like a sign.
For the installation in Regenbogenstadl, I have installed
the piece within the gallery, and added a layer of magenta mylar
gel to reduce the brightness of the neon lights. In this context,
the sculptural qualities of the work are emphasized.
3. Dream House Variation III, 1992
neon mounted on board; mylar gel
c. 61 cm x c. 244 cm
MAGENTA DAY / MAGENTA NIGHT
Magenta Day / Magenta Night is a genre of my work in which
mylar gel is mounted over glass windows, skylights and all existing
light sources. For a given installation, each window panel in the
space is treated with magenta gel, utilizing natural sunlight during
the day to create both a color-enhanced interior environment and
a magenta-colored view of the external world from within. The views
through the windows to the world directly outside the space also
present varying color apertures, reinforcing the focus on interior
and exterior spatial relationships informed by colored light. From
inside the space, the magenta windows function in two ways, as transparent
lenses to the outside world during the day, and as reflective surfaces
of the interior world at night, mirroring and recording the viewer's
relationship to the surrounding color space. When visible from outside
the environment, both day and night, a third effect takes place
in that the colored light spaces within appear, and are further
transformed, through the frames of the magenta colored lens-windows.
The light sources in the large interior gallery were
treated with magenta gel and an extremely deep 'Congo' blue gel
to blend into a magenta canopy in the entire upper area of the room,
dimmed so as not to reduce the light level of the DVD projection
on the wall. Subtle shadows cast by the structure of the beams appear
as faint linear patterns on the ceiling and eaves.
The Regenbogenstadl gallery in Polling is beautifully
situated in nature, with trees and the gentle landscape in every
vista. The chance to incorporate the qualities that nature brings
to an environment, yet transform their view in a manner complementary
to the light sculptures, is an aspect of the Magenta Day / Magenta
Night series that I find especially intriguing. In this installation,
the magenta-gelled window in the sculpture gallery acts as an anchor
to the three other sculptures, balancing their electric, man-made
glow with the astonishing sparkle of leaves bathed in magenta sunlight,
with soft blushes of magenta patterns on the ceiling and walls,
and with fleeting roseate glimpses of the everyday natural world
we would hardly notice were it not presented in a new light.
4. Magenta Day, Magenta Night, 2001
mylar gel mounted over glass windows and light sources
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