Art Lights Gallery - backlit abstract textile art |
I started developing this range in 2002. The innovative idea is to combine floating felts with an integral light source - merging art with home decoration to stunning effect and intentionally subverting the boundaries between art and interior design, by turning an artwork into an ‘art light’.
The original Art Lights used a '2D' compact fluorescent light shining through a floating felt stretched on a square frame, with a diffusing sheet between the light and the felt, and finished with a sheet of glass or acrylic on the front. The light shining through brings up the pattern of the individual wool fibres. The units are designed so that the light also shines out from behind the piece (as shown in the Gallery images below and in the image on this page - showing an artlight in situ).
During the last two years, I have also been producing smaller Art Lights, using a single 40w candle bulb (or equivalent energy-saving bulb). These textile art pieces have no frame round them, so they look much more like lit versions of my 'Floating Felts'. and the simpler construction has enabled me to sell them at a lower price (typically around £150 for a 27cm square piece and normally sold or commissioned as a piar of pieces) - see Fireworks I and Fireworks II
The felt is sandwiched between sheets of acrylic and extends to the edges of the sheet. The light source is attached to the piece with small, virtually invisible bolts, and the larger pieces (Tokelau Storm and Tokelau - Lagoon) have zinc-plated bolts at each corner.
I then had the idea to use ultraviolet-reactive ('day-glo') fibres lit with slim uv tubes set into a black acrylic frame to create an impression of space and depth. When the tubes are switched on, this produces an intense bright glow from the fibres, bringing into glowing focus the uv-reactive fibres in the piece, whilst plunging the background into semi-darkness. The three-dimensional feeling is enhanced by stray fibres being statically attracted to the clear facing sheet. - see Burning His Roses (click here to see the same piece in situ) or Tokelau - Deep Down
One of the most interesting things about my Art Lights is that, when the light is switched off, you see a very different image (as shown in the enlargements of the pieces in this Gallery).
Many other ideas are possible and I'm working on a few at the moment - see the Commissions page, for some suggestions as to what you might ask me to create!
At present, these art lights are designed primarily for the UK market, because of voltage differences, but
