LED Nebula, 2021-2022

smoke on glass, dots made with biodegradable cotton ear buds and various sized needles, LED lights in an African Walnut frame, attached to a South African National Standard(SANS)164-1 three-pin plug (54cm x 54cm)

LED Nebula, 2021-2022, started off as an artwork made with beetroot ink as an homage to my late father who passed away from a rare leukemia in 2019.

This artwork glowed a deep red but as time went on, it faded in colour, as organic matter does and as we all will… eventually. I then used smoke on glass created by burning a candle underneath the glass. It’s a tricky medium to control because because of the nature of using fire, but also that smoke smudges so easily. I then stippled out the dots through an erasure method, treating the smoke as charcoal, leaving spaces for the LED lights to shine through.

I used the bones of the artwork (the glass, frame and lights), to transform this piece into a representation of a nebula.

The red version of this piece was exhibited at ‘Botanica II’ (2019) at Art B. Gallery and ‘Open Studio’ (2019) at Eastside Studios, South Africa.
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