Brigitte Kowanz, Lichtverschmutzung, 2021

2021

Medium

Light bulb and cable

Edition

Edition of 75

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-156160

The edition 'Lichtverschmutzung' (2021 made of two black light bulbs and a long orange or yellow neon-colored cable, stretches through the room and across the wall as a connecting element. While the bulbs remain off, the cable glows and illuminates the space when illuminated by black light. For Kowanz, the cable is not a means to the end of illumination, but an essential part of her works in terms of form and content. She understands light as a carrier of information that is generated by electricity and that cables carry from one place to another. Thus, the connecting element is as much a part of the flow of information as the lamp. "Light is the prerequisite for seeing and perceiving. Light in itself, however, can only be perceived in connection with material. Light is energetic and dynamic, it is a carrier of information. Light can be and can not be. This on and off opens the possibility to inform with light. Light is expansive and elusive, it never remains the same – light is a metaphor for life."At the same time, "Lichtverschmutzung" pays homage to Joseph Beuy's 1985 "Capri-Batterie" in which a yellow light bulb is placed inside a lemon while the fruit becoming a natural energy source. Both artists refer to the production of energy, its transformation to light and as a carrier of information, whereby the technical apparatuses are at the same time mirrors of society. The color of the cable varies alternately by edition number between neon yellow and neon orange.