The art I’ve been consuming online lately has been largely connected with light in different ways. First, lighted sculptures & lamp designs, and second, stained glass windows. I’ll explore the former here and the latter in a future post.

Last month I picked up a box of translucent porcelain with the intention of exploring forms that will be lit in some way. Could be desktop, hanging or wall mounted, I’m open. The forms will dictate where they’ll live as they develop; I won’t control that. At the forefront is bringing back this idea from years ago when I was working with plastic assemblages. This one particular sculpture is the starting inspiration:

The photo is very poor quality; this was from a time when I didn’t document my work very well. But, there are several intrigueing aspects of this piece, for me. One is that the construction technique might lend well to the vision that is still forming for this work. Another is that this new body of work could be a conglomeration of ‘units’ like in this plastic sculpture, or it could be one unit, zoomed in and developed. I might play with the latter first and see where that goes.

Composition will be another big driving force. Light and shadow both dramatically change how the composition appears, and so they will act as key players in the designs, which will essentially be of two characters – with light and shadow present, and without. How will this work and not be flat or disjointed in one of these modes? TBD…

As for form, I keep thinking about Poul Christainsen. I grew up seeing one of his Le Klint hanging lights in my Danish grandparents’ home, along with their Danish furniture and ceramics. They were people of great taste! In any case, Poul’s geometric forms are examples of the guiding principles that infuse my current visions for the project. 

How these three – form, composition, and construction – will come together, may take a while, but I’m excited to play and discover some interesting work, partnering with light.

Photo source: Poul Christainsen, 40 years with Le Klint, https://poulchristiansen.com/