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Neon Sculpture, "Flow" at The Old Fire Station, Oxford

Last week saw the installation of "Flow", a three dimensional neon sculpture at The Old Fire Station, Oxford.

"Flow" is the culmination of many months of work for Mary Branson and Jono Retallick, collaborating with the homeless charity Crisis Skylight at their Oxford headquarters in The Old Fire Station Arts Centre, Oxford.

The initial breif was to produce a small, four metre long, three dimensional neon sculpture, made up of two, two metre sections of neon to hang in the entrance hall of The Old Fire Station, Oxford. After some early discussions the overall length of the piece was increased from four to fourteen metres and comprising of seven, two metre sections of 15mm White 6200K 1A glass.

One and Three Joseph Kosuth

Sara Hurley's new solo exhibition "Talking Concrete" is on at the 5th Base Gallery, 23 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ , open to the public from 4th. October until 9th. October, 12.00pm to 6.00pm.

Sara is presenting a series of works including an installation inspired by the artist Joseph Kosuth and called "One and Three Joseph Kosuth", made from her imaginary drawings of Kosuth in neon and a series of recordings of face to face interviews with members of the public, looking for today's societal view on art.

The neon piece itself is made up of six sections of 15mm White ID glass with 30m/A electrodes and running on a 6000volt/25m/A transformer with open circuit protection. 

James Franco's Neon Art

Here are a couple of pieces recently commissioned for James Franco's London gallery debut, Psycho Nacirema at Pace Gallery 6-10 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LB running from June 6th 2013 - July 27th 2013.

Based around Hitchcock's "Bates Motel", the exhibition has been curated by Turner prize-winning artist Douglas Gordon and includes a large scale video installation entwining Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho with the 1920's Fatty Arbuckle murder scandal.

The two neon pieces were made using 10mm White 1D with 8mm clear red for the word vacancy. 50 R 90 and 25 R 50 electrodes were used as well as three Hansen 20/3 convertors in each sign. The neon was then mounted onto the hand painted sign written boxes using clear coarse threaded tube supports and nickel wire.

Colin Booth's "Jesus Wept"

 

Colin Booth's "Jesus Wept" 2012, neon and steel

 

Jesus Wept, Colin Booth's neon text installation, located in The SPACE, King's Road, St. Leonards on Sea, East Sussex TN37 6DY and on view from 14th December 2012 - 8th January 2013.

 

Jesus Wept is the shortest verse in the King James Bible, describing Jesus' sorrow at the death of his close friend Lazarus and the pain of his greiving sisters, Mary Magdalene and Martha. Arriving too late to save him and deeply moved by their despair, he wept for the fate of mankind and chose to raise Lazarus from the dead.

 

With a lower case cap height of about 260mm, Sign-Tec 10mm White 1D was used with cut down 50R90 electrodes and then filled with blue gas.

 

All the neon was dipped rather than hand painted to provide a thicker and more even paint coverage and then mounted onto a 20mm steel box section frame. The whole piece runs on two 25m/A transformers totalling 13Kv.

 

 

Neon Clouds In The Making

 

Dr. Lisa Anderson's Neon Cloud in the making for Beneath The Architecture of Beauty.

 

The clouds were made using 12mm diameter pink 1505 glass, 30m/A right angled electrodes and filled with blue gas. The neon was then mounted onto an aluminium tray formed in the shape of a cloud. Three electronic 3000volt 20m/A inverters were used and housed within the tray allowing a single white mains flex to exit from the bottom.

 

 



Three other smaller pieces were also produced, seen here with holes having been drilled, prior to powder coating.

 

All of Lisa's neon pieces are available through the Bicha Gallery ,London.

 

 

Mona Hatoum's Hot Spot at the Goetz Collection Munich

Mona Hatoum's, Hot Spot , 2009, neon and stainless steel

I've recently returned from 3 days in Munich, having been asked by The Goetz Collection, an internationally renowned, private collection of contemporary art, to assemble Mona Hatoum's Hot Spot for an exhibition of her work beginning in November. The collection is owned and continuely added to by, the former gallery dealer, Ingvild Goetz who presents the collection to the public in a series of themed exhibitions in a purpose built museum, designed by the Swiss architectural firm of Herzog and de Meuron in 1993.

Peter Head, neon fitter extrodinaire, working somewhere in the Philippines

Originally commissioned in 2009 for an exhibition in the Fondazione Querini Stampalia at the Venice Biennale,  the piece comprises 48 sections of 8mm clear tubing filled with neon gas. Each piece was initially bent in two dimensions,using a full size drawing as a template and was then bent again into three dimensions to fit the curvature of the globe. 

 

The tubing is lit by 10 transformers producing 95000 volts and running at 18m/A. The tubing is attached to the frame with nylon fishing twine and is cushioned on a bed of silicon sleeves. The H.T.cables drop straight down from the electrodes to the transformers housed in the base.


 

Mona Hatoum's Undercurrent

The exhibition also includes the work “Undercurrent”, a beautiful and intricate mixed media extravaganza comprised of cloth covered electric cable, lightbulbs and a dimmer device allowing the lightbulbs to "breathe" . Other pieces include several of Mona's early video installations as well as "Paravent" or "Grater Divide" and "Slicer".

The exhibition runs from 21st November 2011 - 5th April 2012 at The Goetz Collection, Oberföhringer Straße 103,  D - 81925 Munich.  Tel. +49 - 89 - 95 93 96 9 - 0

More information about Mona Hatoum is available at here at Artsy