Moment (Spectrum/Cigarette Wrapper) (digital print) 2009

I took this photo in my old apartment. I own 2 small tear shaped prisms (the type found in road-side gift shops) and one of them was making awesome rainbows in the living room one morning. This spectrum was hitting a cigarette wrapper (the plastic and paper) that my roommate had left on his gray plastic shelving unit. The cigarette paper is reflecting the blue light onto the shelf (seen to the left of the wrapper). Like the opalescent gift tissue in my piece The Mystery of Sprites and Jets the reflective surface of the paper absorbs all colors except for one. In this photo blue in reflected; in Sprites and Jets green (to a lesser extent yellow and blue) are reflected.

The Mystery of Sprites and Jets (detail of installation at University Galleries, ISU) (gift tissue, opalescent thread, glue, lamp) 2009

The mystery I am addressing in the above pieces is the enactment of light; what light can do. There is a certain cultural fascination with light and light effect (black lights, strobe lights, night lights, fireworks, Christmas lights, northern lights, etc) that I share and am interested in dissecting and altering into surprising and new displays of objects, color, and light. In Sprites and Jets the mystery is exemplified by the title referent: the electrical storm effects (similar to lightning, but above the clouds) called red sprites and blue jets.

diagram of red sprites, blue jets, elves, and lightning

fist color photograph of a red sprite, taken from an airplane

The reference to the meteorological effect was first by aesthetics (the colors are similar), but was soon followed my mystique. Before they were widely know airplane pilots often commented on these strange occurrences that happen only during electrical storms; a weather condition that already came with it's own awe and other-worldly experience. Not much is known about the characteristics, function, or cause of sprites and jets still.

The added magic of this upper-atmosphere event was a welcome and planned addition to my interest and display of 'light doing weird things' in the above mentioned photograph and sculpture. I feel that the humble way (through poor and commercial material and size) I am addressing these grandiose concepts in a surprising and refreshing way. Stepping back, what I'm really saying is' "garbage can be magical too!"

Below are some images of a few pieces I've recently come across by Charles Ross and Nancy Holt that I like to think of in concert with my above mentioned ideas. [although artists like James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson, Robert Irwin, Dan Flavin, Spencer Finch, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and a host of other people (mostly men and modernists evidently) could be mentioned here too]

Charles Ross - 4 over 5 +72, 2005

Charles Ross - Double Dispersion, 1972

Charles Ross - Conversations with the Sun, 2004

Nancy Holt - Mirros of light (650W quartz lights, mirrors) 1973-4