Diet Wiegman, Dutch artist, was voted as the most brilliant artist of the Netherlands in 2009 and 2010.
Many of these sculptures are from the 1980s and contain messages about consumption and consumerism during a boom period in the Western world, which is the main reason he choose to sculpt with garbage. The idea behind these sculptures were raising the awareness of pollution and waste.
Around 1990 he started to create rotating sculptures. This adds a whole new dimension to his art piece.
Recent pieces regarding Europe and electronic devices:
The light artist I selected to present on is the artist collective, Liu Dao (Island 6 is the English meaning).
Liu Dao is a multidisciplinary arts group based in Shanghai, China, with artists coming from both internationally, and from the Shanghai area. Because this artist collective have many different people of many different skills, the group outputs a variety of art using different styles and techniques. In the light art realm, they have works in the following categories: laser, neon, and LED.
An interesting thing about Liu Dao is that most to almost all works created are a result of a collaboration between artists and curators in the collective. Each piece is treated much like how a game or a movie is made, with individuals specializing in tech, art, sound, direction, and production. This eliminates the individual intentions towards the art and focuses more on the collective intention.
“All The Things You Are” – animated LED display with paper and painting on plexiglas overlayed.
Concepts found in Liu Dao’s works often combine modern technology and culture with traditional Chinese art. In many of their LED artworks, a beige background is used to simulate the look of traditional Chinese paintings. Some other artworks include an intricate Chinese papercut piece, which is also a important discipline within traditional Chinese art.
When talking about modern cultures, the fact that Shanghai is a city full of light art in itself is a concept that is reflected upon their neon and laser works. Some artworks also have references from video games, specifically those from the NES and SNES era (Mario, Space Invaders, Duck Hunt).
Not directly a light artist, Dale Chihuly specializes in glass art. Most of the pieces are created by glass blowing techniques. However, there is one collection of his work, titled “Chandeliers” that more fits the bill.
Being translucent, glass is incredibly easy to turn into a light source. Just a few light sources arranged properly can allow one of Chihuly’s pieces to radiate color and light in any direction.
Since Chihuly has countless individual pieces with basic names (e.g. “Scarlet Icicle Chandelier” or “Blue Icicle Tower”) that are all meant to fit together in an environment, I needed to focus on entire exhibitions of his work.
From his Chandelier’s (and later Chihuly over Venice) collection, a more experimental collection to test the interaction of Chihuly’s new glass forms with our known world.
From Through the Looking Glass, Chihuly’s idea of creating a new world for people to step into.
From Garden and Glass, a collection that encompasses a variety of Chihuly’s work which is placed among a natural environment.
From his beginnings, Chihuly has always wanted to create new and exciting pieces that look unique. He is constantly testing the limits of glass forming processes, and thus his works tend to take more organic or sharp shapes. When placing his work in exhibits, this tends to create surreal environments that can feel like entire new worlds.
The presentation discusses four of the works of Leo Villareal. The first work is the Columns 2(4) which is one of Leo’s first explorations of architectural environments created with LEDs, circuit board, micro controller, and plexiglass tubes. It is pictured below, and randomly changes its color sequence based on a computer program written by Leo himself.
The second work is the Multiverse, which originates from Leo’s desire to create spaces in an already built environment. This piece uses 41,000 LEDs, circuitry, and a computer. Similar to his first piece, he wrote a program which instruct’s the lights colors to change in random sequences. It is pictured below
The third work is the Buckyball, which was an inspired by geodesic sphere/dome shapes. It has 4,500 lights, and a computer used to shift the colors dynamically between over 16 million colors similar to the last two pieces. It is pictured below
The fourth work shown in the presentation is The Bay Lights. Inspired from his desire to use the Bay Bridge as a canvas for light, Leo and the group that helped bring this dream to light (no pun intended) ILLUMINATE spanned 25,000 LED lights across the western span of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, CA. The lights alternate on and off in random pattern and sequences with no color change. It is pictured below
And here is the link to the video of it shown in the presentation:
The presentation concludes by going over all the key ideas and concepts in these pieces. Leo wants to understand system by stripping them down to their lowest structure, and not only focus on its physical framework but its spatial framework as well. Central to his works are elements of chance, where he programs his works to display random but compelling sequences of lights and his programs serve as a common tool among all his works.
For many years Bruce Munro has recorded ideas and images in sketchbooks because he has always had an urge for reuse. His artwork is inspired by his interest in shared human experience and in result he is known for his immersive large scale light based pieces. Munro is trained in the manufacturing of light and produces intimate story-pieces as well as temporary experimental artworks.
Bruce Munro Portrait
Bruce Munro produces three main types of artwork; installations, sculptures, and commission.
Light Shower – installation
Bruce’s vision for this piece of art originated while he was in Scotland in 2008. He was sitting on the main stairs of the building absorbing the view of the snow capped mountains out ahead. When it started raining the view became distorted from the interaction between the water and windows which is when the words “light” and “shower” registered in his mind. The first public exhibition for this piece was in 2010 and since he has created different versions of the piece.
Materials: Fiber optics, Acrylic, Light source
Salisbury Cathedral, UK 2010Franklin Park Conservatory, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Mettabhavana – sculpture
This piece was conceived by Munro in the late 1990s. To this day, this piece is still a conceptual piece that is one of Munro’s life goals to build for the human experience. This artwork came to Munro in a dream one night when he was staying in a beach house in Barbados. He dreamt of a building where the walls were just softly glowing of light and it was unsure where the source was coming from. He had a sense of inner peace and unity and knew this building wasn’t just for him but for everyone. This would be a nondenominational space where people would unite and could meditate. He explained it as “drawing light back into the world, both literally and spiritually”. There would be no electricity and would be lit by the daylight during the day and by beeswax candles at night.
Here is a link to a video of the artwork: https://vimeo.com/43125794
Impression: Time Crossing Culture – commission
Munro wanted this piece to reflect the museums cultural history and collections but also interact with the users. Another intent for this piece was to pull the users attention towards the welcome space in the museum. His inspiration for the piece was the overall concept of time. Each of the rings represents one of the 12 numbers on a clock while the each sphere is representative of the Earth. The fixture is also overlayed with a digital animation that casts moving images through the spheres onto the floor.
Micah Elizabeth Scott is a light artist living in San Francisco who uses technology and everyday electronics to make works of light-based and interactive art. Many of her works use common objects and “hacking” otherwise inaccessible technology. She calls this “improvisational engineering”. One great example of this is her project Coastermelt, which follows her process of reverse engineering a Blu-ray player in order to manipulate the data on it to create images.
“Forest” is a piece she worked on in 2015 in collaboration with the Toronto International Film Festival’s Kids digiPlaySpace. It consists of a large wall with holes and handles all lit from behind by constantly-changing lights. The idea behind the piece is that kids could play with the handles, modifying the light in interesting, natural motions in order to encourage play, curiosity, and collaboration.
Scott was also a key part in the creation of FadeCandy, an interface for easily controlling LEDs for light art. The project arose out of her own experience using LEDs for art. She developed the microcontroller as a way to make LED art more accessible to people. It is now sold by Adafruit.
Another major accomplishment of hers was two related works: “Zen Photon Garden” and “High Quality Zen“. Both are software simulations of light using a technique called raytracing. They allow the user to explore interesting geometry and patterns through their interactions with light.
I really enjoyed research Scott’s art, because I find the idea of using light and technology as an interactive art medium really interesting and exciting.
Janne Parviaien is a 35 year old photographer and painter from Finland, who sometimes uses the online alias jannepaint. He discovered light art by mistake in 2007 when he bumped into one of his cameras while shooting in a dark area, and was fascinated by the effects it created. He has since been featured in publications such as National Geographic and Wired magazine, and does some commercial work, including a project with Adobe Systems.
Adobe Remix
He lies in Helsinki, Finland, and is often inspired by the city and feelings of urban sprawl. He does many of his shoots in abandoned locations in and around the city. The work shown below was part of a shoot done a forest containing numerous abandoned cars.
Every Step You Take
Many of Parviaien’s inspirations and influences are easily represented by his oil paintings, which are done on old windows using both sides of the pane of glass. His oil paints are usually of sparse natural scenes, or scenes of urban detail, because his is interested in the “abstract rhythm” created by the growth of plants and
The Thin Red Line Oil painting on glass
graffiti around the existing landscape. He comments on his website about the subjects of his paintings: “What makes things beautiful in my opinion is the rhythm and life force of the subject, rather than culturally learned ideals.” These ideas can also be seen in many of his works of light art.
He believes the essence of light art is that there is no post production work, and all photos should come straight from the camera. For pictures with difficult perspective aspects, he plans them in his studio without using any computer assistance. He usually shoots in almost complete darkness, and his primary tools are actually LED finger lights that are intended to be children’s toys. He also uses flashlights and coloured gels, and occasionally chalk marks are used to guide his light traces and sometimes even incorporated into the picture itself.
The picture of his that is most recognizable to people is an image featured in National Geographic’s April issue in 2013. It is called “Days of Our Lives”, and it is an example of what he calls Light Topography, or tracing a room’s entire surface in light. The photo took a 24-minute exposure time to complete.
Days of Our Lives
His works often contain a figure lying on the ground, or contain other eerie images, including glowing skeletons. These skeletons are featured in a music video he made for the song Helsinki Safari by Hahmo, another Finnish artist, which is a stop-motion video that includes almost 800 individual light paintings.
Another work of his, Catharsis, was chosen to be part of the promotional program for UNESCO’s Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies, which was an event hosted by the United Nations in 2015 that aimed to raise awareness about light-based technology an its applications. Catharsis is another example of light topography, and includes more color and complex figure shapes than Days of Our Lives.
In 2008, Calle del Pez Street in Madrid was taken storm by the anonymous Light Artists, Luzinterruptus, as they covered each and every street lamp on the block with red lampshades. They have since done over 170 different light art pieces in locations across the globe, including, but not limited to, New York City, Toronto, and Melbourne.
Their name, “Luzinterruptus,” essentially breaks down into “Luz,” or “light,” “interrupt us.” Which is a pretty good summation of their goal as an artistic group: take lights and combine them with everyday objects in order to “shed some light” on some pressing social issues. Their typical tools are fluorescent lights, however they also use LEDs and Glowsticks from time to time.
Some of their pieces:
This is a shot of the aforementioned “The Intimate Lights of La Calle Del Pez.” The goal of this piece was to take an urban area, filled with bustling people, and use the lighting in an effort to make the area feel more “lived in” and “intimate.”
This is a piece named “Under Nuclear Threat.” It was displayed in Besançon, France and used a kind of sinisiter-looking scarecrow dressed in a hazmat suit to represent the looming threat that Nuclear war puts us under.
This is a personal favorite of mine called “Literature vs. Traffic.” The one pictured above is from their most recent display of it in Toronto, but they’ve also done it in NYC, Melbourne, and Madrid. Basically, they took over a street for a full day and just covered it with books that had lit up pages. The goal was to take a busy and bustling environment and completely transform it into a quiet space. Visitors were allowed to take home any of the books that they wanted from the display.
Here, we have the Plastic Island. This particular instance of it was in Trafalgar Square, but the original was in the waters of Portugal. The piece is a play on the statement that the Eighth Continent of the world is made of plastic. The goal was to alert people of the effects that their pollution has on the environment.
This last piece is called “Street Heartbeats.” It was a commissioned piece located in Tartu, Estonia. Luz had a photographer take pictures of thousands of locals, and used those images to create illuminated bags of red water, representing the heart of the city.
“My work is about your seeing. There is a rich tradition in painting of work about light, but it is not light –it is the record of seeing. My material is light, and it is responsive to your seeing.” –James Turrell
James Turrell Portrait
James Turrell is a light artist in the most genuine way. He uses light in a way that puts it as the medium and not just something involved with the art piece. He creates objects and places for people to have experiences through light.
Standing in the Akhob exhibit in Las Vegas
Turrell has been featured in many museums but his work isn’t an easy thing to just throw up on a wall or place in a room. All of Turrell’s art pieces require modification to the space that it will be placed in. Whether it is blacking out or covering windows, building structures inside rooms, or creating zigzag hallways that prepare the viewer to see his art, there aren’t many “easy” installations when it comes to Turrell’s works.
The art that Turrell creates is all about immersive experience for the viewer. He works with shapes and light to create what appear to be physical embodiments of light. Experiencing Turrell’s art may take a lot of time for viewers to fully appreciate and understand his work. Laying on the ground and looking up at a mass of colored light or standing in what seems to be an dimensionless room are just two examples of what one could expect from Turrell’s work. Many people would say that it is impossible to explain his work without having experienced it.
One of Turrell’s art pieces that he is known for involve what is called a perceptual chamber. These chambers are for one person at a time and normally take about 12 minutes per person. Each person is slid into a chamber that is similar to an MRI machine. Once inside, the lights change and morph keeping beat to music that is played through headsets. Many people will not go inside these chamber because of the disorienting nature of Turrell’s work.
Inside the Perceptual ChambersOutside the Perceptual Chambers
Overall Turrell has an amazing understanding of light and creating an experience using light as the subject and medium. To experience Turrell’s work is something that is inexplicable but unforgettable.
Makoto Tojiki is an artist and designer who uses light as his primary medium of expression. He also works with jewelry that involves light reflections (Diamonds).
He was born in Miyazaki, Japan in 1975. Graduated Kinki University Kyushu faculty in industrial design engineering in 1998. Work as a in-house product designer from 1998 to 2003. Then started activity as a full-time freelance artist. Currently, he lives and works in Chiba, Japan.
His type of artwork is Light Sculpture. He uses materials like LEDs, Copper Wires, Integrated Circuits (ICs), Acrylics, Wood, Steel Rods, Optical Fibers, and Resin.
His concept revolves around the idea that objects can appear differently from how we remember them to be. However, this doesn’t mean that the object itself has changed, but the way we look at it has. The change in our perspective is what causes the object to appear different. The change in how we see the object may be “related to, and expressive of the object’s essence.” His interest is in exploring, “When, and for what reason, does a person’s perception of an object change?” Through his work, he seeks to stimulate how people see objects.
No Shadow – This series is inspired by the interconnectedness of light and shadow and how they can be manipulated and controlled. Tojiki begins his creative process by breaking down the light and the shadow to capture the essence of their relationship resulting in fleeting images that are as short-lived and mysterious as shadow itself. The series is made only with LEDs, Copper wires, and ICs.
Highlight – Is a piece that uses the shadow and shadow to create 3D images. The piece is crafted out of LEDs, Copper wires, Steel rods, ICs, and Acrylics
Princess Leia – Is a gift from Makoto to Carrie Fisher (Actress for Princess Leia). This artwork is made from LEDs, Copper wires, Stainless rods, and ICs.
