Rising and setting

A shadow is a drawing, translating 3D information into 2D from a fixed viewpoint, using edges and perspective, yet it requires no traditional skills, can be infinitely replicated, and exists in space until meeting with a viewing surface - which may also alter it in other ways. Light drawings engage with their location and can be of enormous size. Sunlight creates shadows all over the world all the time, but using an electric light source introduces questions of value, impermanence and ownership.

I intend to recreate the sun’s rising and setting with electric lights, but where days are minutes instead of hours. Two moving light sources on tracks (one lit and one returning to position) will provide the experience of relentless, consecutive dawns and dusks.


Condensing the daylight cycle in this way highlights its absolute dominance over our world. Though all-encompassing within the gallery space the obviously insignificant scale of such a reenactment lets us grasp the real sun’s enormous power. The dim intensity of an artificially shadowed world accords reality the respect it is due.

This proposal is for new work that pushes current ideas forward, and adds a time-based element.