Keith Sonnier, Palm Blatt, 2000

2000

Medium

Neon and transformer

Dimensions

178 × 167.5 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-156281

“Palm Blatt” (2000) is part of the leaf series that originated in the early 2000s and in which Keith Sonnier transfers the contours of leaves into abstract green neon light. Based on studies by the artist that he made in the gardens of New Orleans, these wall sculptures are carefully thought-out constructions that convey a sense of immediacy and focus on the drawing gesture itself. The connection between drawing - which is strongly anchored in the artist's work - and sculpture becomes clear in “Palm Blatt” through the curved neon elements and the black connecting cables, immersed in the room with the luminescence of colored light, forming an interface between technology and nature. Here Sonnier idealized the contour of a leaf with the technical possibilities of freely formed neon elements into an expressively poetic sculpture. Early in his career, Sonnier developed an interest in creating light as a “color volume” or a light-flooded environment within the context of architecture, thus transcending conventional material boundaries.