DSL COLLECTION - COLLABORATION
DEAR LIGHT, 2021
DIGITAL VIDEO INSTALLATION
15,25 MINUTES
At the end of 2019 I presented an investigation into the physical concept of light when generating sculptural installations based on light at an artistic residency here in London, in which I came to the conclusion that to understand light we must study shadows. This study, called In Its Own Shadow, was born from the reading and reinterpretation of one of Li Young Lee’s poems from his book Behind my Eyes, in which I highlight one of the phrases: And what else did I learn? That light comes from the darkness to usurp its ancient rank.
I felt that the research line touched the zero level from the deontological point of view of creation and had many possibilities of representation. In a consecutive and (almost) obsessive way, I took two photos a day (morning and afternoon) for every day of the past year of the London sky, to try to capture its light.
Dear Light is presented as a projection of light of 1830 colours belonging to the sky of London throughout the year 2020. Through an exercise of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction, in which I use the sky of the city as a light object, I propose a reflection journey on time, space, light and colour. Through the use of digital media, I decompose each of the photographs into 5 colour stripes. These colours are presented chained (3.05 seconds between colour and colour), in a projection of 15 minutes 25 seconds, the result of multiplying the 366 days of 2020 by the 24 hours of the day. The colours are projected in a loop and do not fulfil the opening or closing function, but are seen as an intermediate stage. The transfer of is measured and smooth, which facilitates a serenity state, although it is also brief, which makes the dialogue brief and we remain expectant.
A way of counting time in colours, or what is the same, in light. Because in the end, colour is light.
This video installation is projected on miniature computers with 3.5-inch (8cm) LCD screens, similar to smartphones. The tiny device and the abstraction of consecutive colours triggers the viewer’s attention, concentrates it on a fixed point and absorbs it from everything around it. In this way, I also address how we consume information and see the world through our small mobile screens.
