Fluorescent 2021

4k video, stereo sound, 28minutes 50 seconds

In Fluorescent the artist approaches the notions of light and material dynamics through focusing in extreme close-up on the processes that occur inside a fluorescent tube. The interior of the tube is portrayed, rotating and pulsing rhythmically on two opposed circular images, as a new aesthetic environment; one governed and generated by the excitations and interplay between electricity, the noble gas argon, and the fine coating of phosphorous on the inside of the glass tube. High voltages ionize the gas and bring the radiation into the visible spectrum and into the realm where the artist can bring them to the attention of the viewer. The perspective of the images prohibits our immediate connection with their source, instead suggesting dust clouds floating in space or atmospheric anomalies. The installation is accompanied by a mesmerizing sound composition that is formed by directly tapping into the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the subject. By applying granular synthesis techniques to this source material, the artist creates another layer of interpretation of the discrete processes taking place within and radiated from the fluorescent tube. The work breaks the conceptions of matter as a stable system, instead of creating compositions that haunt us with the forms emerging from dynamic motions and randomized patterns.

Mónica Bello, curator