Glow
Installation of 702 hand gilded light bulbs, 2002.
First shown at Artspace, Sydney, Australia in February 2001, the Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea and Like Gold Dust at Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham.
Glow started life as one in a series of installation works made in response to the communal spaces at Chapter Arts Centre, home to my studio. Spent bulbs, no longer able to emit light, were taken and gilded before being returned to their original fittings. Within a skin of the purest gold, the bulbs could now reflect available light, living extended and elevated lives as objects of beauty and 'worth'.
A Special Crafts Award from the Arts Council of Wales enabled me to pursue a master class in gilding techniques, and the option to gild new light bulbs in a more systematic manner.
Within the gallery space the work acquires an expanded set of meanings. The nature and value of gold itself is made more apparent in terms of its market value ® and as one of the most effective conductors of electricity on the periodic table. Our attention is drawn to the form and function of what although taken for granted is a mark of modernity. There is an irony in that through the very process of gilding the bulbs are in effect rendered useless, even as their value is amplified.
Glow illustrates a methodical and obsessive practice. My intention - to make something beautiful and pure. The time and effort invested in the piece lends it a presence and quietude greater than that initially anticipated. The bulbs reflecting a soft golden light offers a restorative space to the viewer, welcoming, contemplative and seductive.