RIBA Fused Exhibition
1997
Three hundred polycarbonate garden cloches, each containing an ultra violet light, were laid on a field of phosphorescent Daz washing powder on the floor of the central exhibition space in the RIBA building in London. During the day the piece was muted, registering the passage of sunlight around the room. At night a great violet glow built up, illuminating the whole building and the street outside. Two large mirrored reflectors mounted on the ceiling meant that the floor of the gallery became obliquely visible to pedestrians as they walked past below. The source of the blue glow was revealed as an image ghosted onto the ceiling.
The work was intended as an equivocal response to the ponderous solemnity and the closed, casket like, quality of the RIBA building. The interplay of natural and artificial light developed an open relationship between the building’s interior and the street. The piece was at its best at dusk as the dimming light of day came into balance with the eerie artificial light brimming up within the cloches. It was a sensual transformation of the room and deliberately non-prescriptive as to how the space should be interpreted or occupied. The perfume of detergent filled the building for weeks.