DEGREES KELVIN

This series explores electrical energy and light. Electrical light installations are installed in the natural landscape, with the source of electrical energy unidentified. There is no visible cable, yet the lights appear switched on. The colour temperature of the filament or gas that provides the electrical illumination is evident. Does the energy come from the landscape itself? From the spinning of the earth, the breath of the current, the flowing of the stream, the blowing of the wind? I have always been fascinated by the invisibility of electrical energy, its physical transmission veiled and its delivery celebrated by electrical activity; a light switches on, a motor whirrs into action, a screen illuminates. I have been working with electrical themes for many years, and whenever I suspect I’m done with that theme, another idea surfaces, urging to be explored. I started collecting discarded lightbulbs in 2013, not sure of what I would do with them. For this series I have just started to explore these light installations, and am really enjoying the process of working in the landscape at night, painting with light and watching the world go around. It is very meditative to sit in the darkness and think about light. From each shoot I end up with just 2 to 4 frames, and that limitation distills the duration of a night’s shoot into something quite simple. The quietness of these images captures perfectly the experience of creating them. At the same time the images mask the activity and energy involved in making them. As a photographer, light is of course my primary medium, and my fascination with it, both natural and artificial, is examined in this series.