Today's blog installment by Lucas Artists Fellow Justin Lowman further details his creative process and inspiration for Untitled (Belvedere Temple). It also marks the third day in our count-down towards Sunday's event Perceptual (Part Two), which will be the debut of his new work.
With the essential framework for my project set, the next order of business was to start working more directly with lighting conditions and effects. The first image you see here is a detail of the top of the stud walls where my structure meets the Belvedere Temple. To highlight the passage of time I installed pink colored Plexiglas strips that project light and shadow on to the columns. Circulating all the way around the top of my structure, this band of color, with its companion wood slats, produce various patterns on and around the Belvedere Temple that shift throughout the day as the sun changes in position and intensity.
This second image shows a nice detail of this in the foreground with the landscape in the background. This playful effect calls attention to abstract thoughts about the passage of time while also suggesting the vernacular of modern domestic architecture, in particular the shade arbor. So, time and history unfold simultaneously, time as an abstract phenomena registering as light and history as the representation of architectural transformation from neoclassical to modern forms.
I continued to explore views like these using various strategies to frame the structure and lighting effects. While the camera is a handy tool for capturing these ephemeral moments, there is no substitute for actually standing in the space and witnessing fleeting light effects while also enjoying the entire multisensory experience of inhabiting the space.
My third image is a view of a fluorescent light I placed on my structure and the view beyond. As with the previous photographs this image represents my attempt to explore the relationship between light, color, and surface and depth of field. This demonstrates again my interest in how different times of day set up different kinds of viewing experience. Color is key.
The following four images highlight other views of the work which I find exciting. With these images you can see the various effects of my fluorescent light interventions (in contrast with natural light effects like the moon). Notice the subtlety and variation of color within the Belvedere Temple and between the site and the immediate environs. These images also reflect my more general interest in composing elements in concert with existing sites.
The final five images demonstrate how my Belvedere Temple work relates to an earlier project I worked on while an artist in residence at Montalvo’s Lucas Artists Residency Program in 2012. At that time I was researching the relationship between light and spatial interventions in my studio and exploring how time of day could impact how one perceives the effects.
Through these light studies, I am continuing a dialogue that began in the 1960s when artists like Dan Flavin began to create sculptural objects and installations from electrical lights (fluorescents in his case). The radical idea of Flavin and others to incorporate this relatively new technology into their art work developed alongside other artists' (like Robert Irwin) experiments with natural light as a way to create immersive experiences for the viewer. Architecture became a way of framing the boundaries of the art work and viewer participation took on a more central role since the position of an audience member in space, and his or her point of view, impacts the perception of the work. In all these developments, we see a shift in thinking about light from something that is merely external illumination to a material for art making.
*Please see below for links to more recent works by Flavin and Irwin that have informed Justin's thinking.These images were not taken by or selected by the artist, however, and therefore do not reflect his interest in a specific viewpoint or effect: www.chinati.org/visit/collection/danflavin.php Check back again soon for more from Justin in advance of Sunday's Perceptual (Part Two). If you're planning on joining us at the event, please take a moment and RSVP on our Facebook page!
TEXT BY JUSTIN LOWMAN
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |