Ever since the development of the light bulb, the intensity and drama of light and shadow from an incandescent light source has fascinated artists.
In each stage of its history, from the invention of the fluorescent tube in the 1850s to the growth of neon advertising signage in the early 20th Century, artists embraced this new medium. Light art emerged concurrent to this embrace of modern wonder, and its ability to create an immersive viewing experience.
But there is a more recent chapter to this glowing history. While the earliest LED lighting was created in the early 1960s, it only was with the understanding projection and computer technology that our era of contemporary light art truly arrived.
With its discovery was also that of a new tourism economy that has seen a mushrooming of light festivals globally. Massive projections on public buildings such as those seen at Vivid Sydney and White Night Melbourne are now drawing big tourism dollars. But are they mere feats of technical wizardry or a stage for new creativity?
There has been a long friction between the worlds of light art and projection art, between the gallery world of abstract light art and the free public display of ‘wow factor’ projections. Here’s our guide to the much biggger world of light art.
1. In the beginning
Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy is widely credited with making the first object-base light sculpture, his Light-Space Modulator of 1922-1930. Moholy-Nagy was among many Constructivists and Bauhaus artists who saw light as a key technology within modernism and were inspired by the capability of light as a creative medium.
2. Light as a design element
Arguably artists had used light in the creation of buildings as an expression of poetry, narrative or as a draw card for audiences for centuries. We only need think of symbolic shafts of light in ancient structures. A good example is Pantheon’s central oculus – which was an influence on American light artist James Turrell.
El Lissitzky’s Prounenraum (Proun room) 1923, however, is largely considered the first use of light by an artist that was incorporated as an architectural element. The ceiling was a painted field of light equally addressed as line and form.
3. The fluro tube as art
Ivan Navarro’s light installation, Burden, presented at MCA Sydney from Hayward Gallery’s “The Light Show” in 2015.
In the summer of 1961, while working as a guard at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Dan Flavin started to make sketches for sculptures that incorporated electric lights. Today his installations are collected by the world’s great museums.
Flavin is one of a coterie of artists who turned the utilitarian fluro tube into an art object, among them Robert Irwin, Iván Navarro, Brigitte Kowanz and Carlos Cruz-Diez .
Australian indigenous artist Jonathan Jones is our local equivalent, known for his use of fluros. He was commissioned to make a major installation for the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) exhibition Luminous, which sited the history and breadth of Australian light artists against that International picture. It was presented in 2015 for the International Year of Light and Light Technologies.
Read: Switched on light show at the MCA
4. The tube as tourism beacon
Neon signs were extremely popular in the United States from about 1920–1960. It is said there were around 2000 small shops producing neon signs in America by 1940. The most famous location was Times Square in New York City, many of which were designed by Douglas Leigh.
The world’s skylines – from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, from Ginza in Tokyo to Las Vegas – became destinations for looking at this light art as advertising.In many ways, it can be considered the precursor to the light festival.
5. Light as environment – indoor
‘If you have no image, no object, no place of focus, what do you have left? For me it then takes you to this primal relationship with light,’ said the American light artist James Turrell.
In 1966, Turrell rented a room in the Mendota Hotel in Santa Monica and sealed it off to create a light responsive environments. What followed was his light work Afrum (White), 1966, the cornerstone of his career and now the stuff of university art history lectures..
Turrell is perhaps best known for his Ganzfelds – the German word for ‘entire’ or ‘complete field’ – ephemeral works created for a specific site and moment. He uses sensory deprivation to enhance extra-sensory perception. His light environments have been created and recreated all over the world. A major restrospective of his work came to the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) last year after iterations in Los Angeles, Houston and New York.
Read: James Turrell: A Retrospective
7. Light as environment – outdoor
From the ethereal to the psychedelic, outdoor light environments first came to prominence at rock concerts in the 1960s. Jefferson Airplane worked with the Headlights light show in America and in England Pink Floyd collaborated with light artist Mike Leonard. In Australia Ellis D Fogg, aka Roger Foley was a local legend.
This year Foley’s career is celebrated as part of Vivid Sydney, Australia best known light festival. Vivid, which started in 2009, is part of a global phenomenon using architectural facades as canvases for light projections. White Night Melbourne, part of the international Nuit Blanche movement, has joined the trend since 2013.
Canberra presents Enlighten in March annually with architectural projections in the Parliamentary Triangle. It likes to make the point that it was in 2008 (pre VIVID) that ACT Labor made an election promise to deliver a new autumn event for Canberra, however it wasn’t until 2011 that the event grew legs. In its first year it was hosted by rock band INXS, who arrived by helicopter to the lawns of Old Parliament House.
But the splashy stunts didn’t pay off. The inaugural festival cost $2.4 million and only had 8,600 attendances. By 2015 that figure had risen to 287,874 visitors.
Brisbane took a different angle presenting the first laser light art show of its kind in Australia, the Santos City of Lights, in 2011.
Newest to the light calendar is Parrtyeme – a Festival in Light – which will make its debut in Alice Springs in September. It will be the first authentic Indigenous light festival of its kind in the world.
With more than 2.5km of the MacDonnell Ranges being illuminated as part of the event, the Northern Territory Government has been working with AGB Events, known for their work on award-winning Vivid Sydney, in close collaboration with Central Australian Aboriginal artists.
‘The focus of the event is helping to share art, culture and stories from the Indigenous community,’ said Chief Minister and Tourism Minister Adam Giles.
