Client: SL Gallery

Overview

These wall works glow differently by day and at night, layering different combinations of reflective sheeting and light. My use of these materials results in what are essentially different artworks. In brightly-lit surroundings that would wash out the work’s light they are vibrant and playful geometric designs made with primary and secondary colors. In darker environments their back lighting turns on and they shimmer and glow, as their use of the contemporary technology of LEDs and prismatic reflective materials evokes the other-worldly sensations of ancient Byzantine mosaics or stained glass.

LEDs, reflective sheeting, gels, plexi, beads
2018-2019
Dimensions in order of the artworks shown here:s shown here:
Lightshift 3: 41.5”H x 41.5”W x 2.25”D, 2019
Lightshift 2: 41.5”H x 41.5”W x 2.25”D, 2018
Lightshift 1, full and side views: 50.5”H x 69”W x 2.25”D, 2018
Lightshift 5: 18.25”H x 41.5”W x 2.25”D, 2019

Goals

All of these works were made for exhibition SL Gallery, in New York City. Lightshtft 1 and 2 were exhibited in "Two Sides to a Coin" in 2018; Lightshift 3,4,and 5 were made for the show "On and Off and In-between" that was scheduled to open on March 25th, 2020 but was canceled because of the pandemic. As of today, May 15th, 2021, the show has been postponed as the gallery has not yet re-opened.

I have a special passion for Byzantine mosaics, and with this body of work I finally succeeded,in a darkened environment, in evoking the mystical emotions that I have felt when looking at them. It is of great meaning to me that I did so with contemporary technology, connecting our present with our past.

Process

Each tile's layers were individually laser-cut, and assembled one at a time in my studio by hand, adding both white LEDs in the front and hidden LEDs with gels as back lighting of different colors. The iridescent beads not only are aesthetic as echoes of the same-sized white LEDs in the front, but also as conduits for the artworks' wiring.