More pictures of the kaleidoscopic tubes...

These pictures of the prototype colour tubes were mostly taken on dull days (no surprise there I'd say) so on bright sunny days they are much more vivid. The tube below is the shorter one of two, and the picture below that is of the base - four perspex squares that can be configured in any combination.

What I like about these tubes and the base is that they have so many possibilities - infinite in fact. I want to create different bases, some with calming blues, purples, some with activating reds, yellows and oranges etc. The base can also have drawings/designs on it which then reflect both outside and on the inside. Bases could be exchanged and the tubes repositioned at any time. I shall probably keep them simple, but elaborate designs are possible.

These could be large for outdoors, or small for indoors. The mirrored exterior creates confusing pictures - snatches of the room or garden as well as the colour tiles.

Drawings As Process

Today my daughter Tori and I attended a workshop run by Tony Buzan, the foremost proponent of mindmapping, who was encouraging us to believe in our creative ability and engage our brains! A good workshop that aimed to show nothing is impossible and that we should all day dream every day!

In the process of generating ideas and creating other work I have also been drawing! A few have asked me where is the drawing - well the subject is Drawing As Process which I translate as incorporating drawing into other practices and using it in the process of making work.

So here are just a few of the drawings that I have used to develop ideas and demonstrate to others what I have in mind, especially where the actual thing cannot be realised, either because it is too large and expensive, or because the technology may not exist to do it. Just because the means are not available to me does not mean I can't dream!

First of all playing around with the triangle - so versatile and also stable and strong in terms of construction - can be used in groups to form other shapes...









Then inside at home imagining an installation of colour tubes on the wall, being lit by redirected sunlight...

And a composite picture of photographs I took of a mirror and CDs in my bedroom, using them to direct light...

And finally a floor plan of a Kingston University building with a photograph of one corridor where I have thought about placing an installation... placing the sculpture there and waiting for the sun to reach the right angle to illuminate it...

Colour tubes

I am still working on the colour tubes, or more accurately tubes with a reflective interior that take their colour from a translucent base...

From talking to friends I have decided to make (or have made, rather) mirrored steel tubes. The steel will be bent and welded together - with the right equipment this can be done invisibly.

My friend Gary has made me a couple of models to work with - here are some photos - they are equilateral triangular tubes in mirrored steel - one is 250 mm tall, the other is 150 mm. In some photos I have added a small prism, and in some I have placed coloured perspex beneath them so that they fill with colour. A bonus is that the outside faces of the tubes reflect the colours in a hexagon shape so that it ressembles a kaleidoscope - here I am again back with kaleidoscopes!

The 2 tubes with a prism on our garden table...

And now placed on top of a mirrored surface with a red and a blue perspex square beneath...

And now with extra coloured squares, aerial view...

And now from the front, kaleidoscopic view...

to "see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face"

Thanks to Judith for providing the quote above in a comment in the blog - it spurred me to talk a little about vision and what we perceive when we look at something...


How much can we trust what we see? To quote a neuroscientist Professor Semir Zeki of UCL, "there is no reality, only brain reality". Or, to put it in my words, we can only interpret what our eyes see in terms of our own experience and our brain's experience of given situations - the brain creates a memory bank of information that allows it to interpret the signals sent by the eyes and we see.

So what we see depends upon how accurate our brain has been in deciphering the information supplied to it. The brain can be fooled by giving it conflicting or confusing information - a good website to look at is run by Dr R Beau Lotto of the Institute of Ophthalmology - Dr Lotto is also a lecturer in neuroscience at UCL - http://www.lottolab.org/Illusions%20page.html. In the image below the cube on the left shows 4 blue squares and the one on the right shows 7 yellow ones. In reality all these squares are grey - they appear differently because of the colours juxtaposed - this is an optical illusion.

So how much of what we see is real? To us it is all that is real. Something only exists as you see it. For another it exists as he sees it. How similar is the way you see something to the way I see something? Some of my pictures shown here, and the video clips that I am working on, are intended to challenge perception and make the viewer consider what it is that he is 'seeing'. I am showing you my reality where I have all the clues as to what it is but I am witholding some so that you must interpret it based not only on what I give you, but what you imagine it could be.

These pictures, for example, are both of a similar subject...

Please leave comments...

I'm delighted that people are leaving comments - thank you so much.

Please give your name also

Lynda

Pictures in pictures and light from without

A few photos of light that are intended to confuse and intrigue... I'd appreciate your comments

Reflections in Bottles

In contrast to the last posting where I posted pics of scenes where the natural light was stunning, these images are constructed by positioning items and taking closeup photos of them in strong sunlight (yes the sun shone today for more than 5 minutes and allowed me to set everything up).

The first one is taken through a tiny blue mirror (it reflects the blue light and allows red and green through - this gives the yellow cast, being the mix of red and green light).

These next photographs are taken looking through a reflective triangular tube that acts like a kaleidoscope...

'Found' Light

The quality of light was amazing on the water in Croatia last week - one day quite stormy and the next so still and clear...

Master's Project Proposal

Lynda Cornwell
MA Drawing As Process
May 2007

Working Title: Waiting for the sun to shine
(If the sun doesn’t come out soon I shall have to go in search of it – new title ‘In Search of the Sun’.)

In recent years I have become fascinated with colour and light, occasionally using light in my own work. Ancient civilisations, for example the Egyptians, used light and reflective materials to adorn their buildings and make them beacons of spirituality. Jewels and coloured glass were used to capture brilliance and decorate all manner of utensils and jewellery the world over (and they still are, witness Damien Hirst’s ‘Beyond Belief’). Stained glass was an important art form in the Medieval era, and has remained so throughout the centuries, with painters like John Piper creating cartoons for church windows, and Joseph Albers experimenting with glass mosaics of found objects. Artists such as Dan Flavin have used ‘new’ lighting fixtures – often industrial versions –in their work.

I have identified that what I enjoy most about such works is the effect of GLOW, gained either from light passing through something such as stained glass windows, or light being emitted from the piece. I also admire witty or clever work – Richard Box’s field of fluorescent tubes lit from above by electricity cables refers back to Flavin’s pieces but with new observations to make – it is both intriguing and a comment on the danger of being too close to pylons and the leakage from overhead cables. (One wonders about leakage from underground cables too.)

Talking of pollution, using recycled materials is ‘green’ and can lead to ingenious artworks. David Batchelor has used old television screens, plastic bottles, and more, in his work with light. Batchelor talks of wanting to ‘transport’ the viewer by immersing him in the light and hue generated by his works – he likens it to cinema or a musical composition where viewers are held enthralled, involved in the event.

James Turrell describes his work as 3D drawings or paintings not sculpture, ‘So this was a work that came out of painting in three dimensions much more than out of sculpture. I do enjoy looking at light as a material, but we don’t tend to accord it the privilege of materiality. But I wanted to see it as material to feel it occupy a space.’.

For my Masters Project I felt I had to use light – the exact form of this changes on a regular basis as I experiment with new materials, new methods and new ideas. I intend to create installations of colour and light, using, preferably, natural light. Nothing is more wondrous than sunlight when it suddenly lights up a previously gloomy space. My aim is to capture this strong source of light and redirect it towards my fabricated objects and so create a glow of coloured light. If I can use recycled materials, so much the better.

Light is used to treat depression; colour is used to alter mood. Colour and light are hugely powerful tools in creating a healthy environment. Artwork that uses both has the potential to improve wellbeing. Batchelor’s aim of transporting the viewer and involving him/her in the work strikes a chord with me and this is what I also aspire to.

CDs as Prisms

When placing a CD in sunlight I find that the reflected light is broken up into a prism - a circular rainbow. If I then use a mirror to direct light on to a CD that reflection can be projected into another space - possibly a darker area. I experimented with this in our house, where the inner hall is rather dark.

I placed a mirror to catch the sunlight entering through the family room and moved it until the light shone on to the CD on the wall in the hall.

The prism rainbow on the opposite wall, between the family room and hall, was spectacular.

I had less success with the glass prism - placing this in the same position gave a small patch of colour on an adjacent wall and a line of colour on a perpendicular wall.