Light Artists: Paul Friedlander

Paul Friedlander is an interesting light artist since all his art stems from a love of kinetic art. Friedlander graduated from college with a degree in physics, before learning his love of art and getting a second degree in fine art.

He has spent his whole life investigating different types of technology to make light a flexible material. To do this, Friedlander came up with a brillant solution, rope. By spinning a rope attached to something on both sides, you can spin that rope and shine a light on it, effectively creating an illusion of a solid 3 dimensional yet fluid object. Friedlander then kept refining this method to create new and interesting shapes, creating his form of light art himself.

Here is a short video to visually show how Friedlander’s art works and get a better understanding:

On his own website, Friedlander refers to his artwork based on where and when it was shown rather than a specific name. So the four exhibits that I looked into were London 2021, Ireland 2021, Sweden 2022-2023, and Lowell Observatory 2024.

London 2021:

Friedlander like the rest of us was affected by Covid, and therefore changed up his artstyle for this year. He started carving acrylic again and then experimented with how three dimensional he could get it to look, even when it was on a two dimensional surface.

Ireland 2021:

This was a halloween festival called the Puca Festival, which was held in Slane Castle, Ireland. This artworks shows off his typical art style with spinning ropes and the lightwork that goes into it.

Sweden 2022-2023:

A lot of Friedlander’s works are based on science. The inspiration for his works in Sweden are a good example of that. One being research on galactic spin orientations.