Cross Current, Galeri Caernarfon 2015

Invited to show in Galeri’s dark gallery space, I decided to refine the work I started during a residency in Swansea in 2013. I built a twin belt driven lighting column that housed two Led spotlights with red and green filters. The lights moved in opposite directions up and down the column and were controlled by an Arduino microprocessor that ensured that the stepper motors ran at the right speed and kept the two belt drives in sync.

Columns of coloured light are projected onto the gallery wall through a 5 metre wide curtain of PVC strips, alternating transparent with opaque. The projected light columns move in opposite directions forcing the viewer to focus on one colour or the other. Alternatively you can de-focus your eyes in an attempt to see both movements at once. It reveals the conundrum that movement is always relative to its context and that the brain is not practiced at seeing two opposing patterns at the same time. The pattern within the light comes from the inconsistencies within the clear PVC.

The work has to be carefully set up with precise distances between the wall, curtain and light source so that the coloured shadow from the opaque strip exactly overlays the projection of the other light through the clear strip. For example, the green light casts a complementary red shadow that coincides with the red projection, reinforcing the intensity of the colour.

I also installed a semi permanent version of an earlier work, ‘Vivid Seam’ in a dark alcove next to the lifts.