The Light reveals a world that cannot see its way. The invisible populace of this world, present only through the objects of their creation, attempts to illuminate paths through the unknown. Their ultimate fate and quiet fear - everlasting darkness - must be kept at bay, and so unfolds a procession of growing and ever more complex illuminations. Building gradually from one lone street lamp to the brightest light ever made, The Light culminates as a metropolis' beacon reaches skyward and the elements bear down through its beams. Ultimately, the attempt to pierce the night, to know the unknown, ends in somber quiet.
Though shot across America in New York, Florida and Nevada, The Light describes a non-place, a universal journey from the countryside to an urban construction ground. Lights grow from lone street lamps to groups of work lights, from myriad klieg lights traversing the night sky to clusters of 7000-watt xenon rays that seem to carve an inverse hole into the void. The light becomes a metaphor for human struggle, through technology and determination, to see through the darkness.
The zenith is found at the “Tribute in Light”, the World Trade Center memorial lights, shown here with a formal and abstracted transcendence, separated from events that brought about their existence. Reduced to their core essence of pure light, the light beams are transformed into a flood of photons hurled into the sky - the end result of an immense effort to hold back the profound darkness.
Courtesy of the artist
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The Light
2003 / 09:52
