Brigitte Kowanz, Chances, 2020

2020

Medium

Neon, aliminum and lacquer

Dimensions

170 × 160 cm

Edition

Ex. 1/3

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-155755

In her light sculpture Chances from the Networks series (2020), the Austrian artist visualizes the complex relationship between seeing, reading, understanding, perceiving and recognizing. She utilizes Morse code, inscribed on the fluorescent tubes. The linkage between language and light is paramount in this work: the segmentation and length of the neon tubes arise from the syntax of the work title - here Chances - transferred into binary code: each tube representing a letter in Morse code. The linearity and logic of the structure is interrupted by the actual creation, which is determined by chance. By dropping the miniature models, the lined up and connected parts in true-to-scale length, the shape of the work, subsequently transferred into neon, emerges. Kowanz invokes a technique by Marcel Duchamp, who established chance as an aesthetic principle in art with his work 3 Stoppages Étalon (1913/14). The black cables are not only technical aids, but also room drawings, spread out on the floor to emphasize the connection between language, light and technology.