HEAD STUDY: BLUE HEAD 2001-05
The neon and salt studies are made up from three dimensional glass neon tube armatures which have a salt crystalline structure grown over the top forming a white body mass. Light pulsates from within this structure. In the case of the heart it beats from side to side, in the head it beats uniformly through the four tube sections. The light filters out through the body of the salt that encases it, making the body appear to glow with an artificial life from within.
The crystalline form took two and a half years to grow and took hundreds of hours of rotation to build up the surface. Many of the works did not make it through to completion, as the process was complex and untested. The only survivors of the series are two heads and six hearts forms.
The works remain stable with a dry atmosphere, however they are very delicate and responsive to their environment. The light source is alive in the sense it has indeterminable life span. It leaves the viewer directly aware that each time the work is switched on, they control and are directly responsible for the preservation and effectively the life or death of the work.
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