Ara Lucidus

Ara Lucidus is an installation piece created by the London based Singaporean artist Iyvone Khoo. The work was originally incepted as a response to the theme Gotika for the 2015 edition of Glasstress, a collateral event of the Venice Biennale where it is currently on show.

Gothic minds were ruled by many fears; fear of God, of Nature and of the unknown. Fireflies were believed to be souls, and their light was seen as a mysterious, magical and supernatural phenomenon.

The installation occupies a juncture where Science, Art and the Spiritual meet. Inspired by a common thread in Bioluminescence, the work embodies the past with the present. Taking references from Dante’s Divine Comedy the idea crystalised into a contemporary Light Altar using lasers, LEDs, ultraviolet light and video projection alongside wooden, plastic and hand blown glass elements.

Set in darkness, a throne sits on
a wooden raft, with monstrous
roots, it clings onto a prayer
pew. A television sits on the
throne, within it an inverted
ghost skull symbolises 'Cold
Hell' and Dante's ascension to
Purgatory. Growing out of the
television, a heart sprouts from a
tree, referring to Dante's lost
love, Beatrice and his quest for
Illumination amongst the 'Dark
Woods'.