Jeremy Barton    L I G H T  P R O J E C T S    It's All White
Bottom	Contents Page	Introduction
This widescreen light box is built up from two layers of fifty four cells, a first layer immediately open to the eye in most cases and a second layer which can be seen through the first at various points. Both layers act to convey coloured light from the light souces at top and bottom along channels formed by sequences of cells. In places light is diverted by mirrors. All the surfaces in the work are white, the colour comes from the lights.

	This is a general view of the piece. The grey surround that forms the frame is the front of an MDF box containing two fluorescent tubes, one above and one below. Fitted into this frame is a construction of foam card and tissue paper. Light flows down and up the vertical channels from cell to cell and is sometimes diverted by mirrors either from side to side or from the back layer to the front.
	Moving the camera closer helps one to see the way in which colour bleeds up and down the work along clearly defined channels, but it looks very two dimensional and it is difficult to appreciate that the channels have depth and that beneath one set of cells lies another partly hidden, partly revealed.
	Moving closer still you can begin to appreciate that some of what you see is on the surface of the work, eg the two purple squares in the corners of this photo, some is a cell deep, eg the pinky-red channels running up from the purple squares, and some cuts through into a second layer, eg the upper central six cells contain structures located in that lower level, picking up light from there and bringing it to the surface.
	Changing the angle lets you see light sources at the bottom edge of the work, light which illuminates the bottom square and then passes into the next square behind a screen of tissue where it is diverted sideways by a mirror to deepen the colour in the central square.
	Here you can see three ways in which light is deployed. On the left it lights a sheet of tissue from behind. On the right it illuminates the walls of an empty cell. In the middle we can look through a square peephole into the cell beyond.
	More cells with more colours, but here the central cell contains a mirror at an angle conveying light from below to the left. A second mirror in the layer beneath picks up light to brighten the tissue screen.
	Again three cells, lit in different ways to different effect. Each cell is a cube seen from the front. The walls of these cubes are all white, the colour is given by the lighting alone.
	Finally a side view that shows more clearly the three dimensional nature of the work and some of the windows that link cells together allowing light to travel from space to space. You can see the edges of mirrors behind tissue screens picking up light from one channel and conveying it into the adjoining cell.

The work is made of foam card covered with tissue paper and situated within an MDF frame containing two fluorescent tubes. Dimensions: 530mm x 335mm x 98mm. Frame dimensions: 690mm x 495mm x 118mm.
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Top	Contents Page	Introduction