| Though the artists in Lightness of Being work across media, one aspect of their practice, the medium of charged particles in light, has been highlighted in this exhibition to demonstrate the unique potential it has when manipulated by the creative mind. The play of light has been a mainstay of painting for hundreds of years. Modernist painters strove to record and visually interpret the effects of light in the world around them. They were superseded by other concerns in art that moved away from the representation of nature into abstraction and, subsequently, a response to popular culture exemplified by pop art. Neon sculptures employ a technology that was originally developed for commercial signage. | 
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David Thorp
Lightness of Being is on display at Initial Access from September 6 to December 19.
Tracey Emin, I Know, I Know, I Know, 2007. White and blue neon, 261.3 x 112.7 cm. Courtesy the artist and Initial Access. Copyright: Tracey Emin, 2008Though the artists in Lightness of Being work across media, one aspect of their practice, the medium of charged particles in light, has been highlighted in this exhibition to demonstrate the unique potential it has when manipulated by the creative mind. The play of light has been a mainstay of painting for hundreds of years. Modernist painters strove to record and visually interpret the effects of light in the world around them. They were superseded by other concerns in art that moved away from the representation of nature into abstraction and, subsequently, a response to popular culture exemplified by pop art. Neon sculptures employ a technology that was originally developed for commercial signage. Sophisticated techniques such as sculpted neon strips, light boxes, and plasma screens have extended possibilities for artists, and changed their relationship with light from one of interpreting natural effects to employing artificial light as an essential expressive element in their work.
Because neon and fluorescent light can only be seen encapsulated within glass tubes, it exists in a physical yet fragile no man’s land that operates between two and three dimensions. The malleability of the medium allows it to express poetic slogans in ‘flat’ forms mounted on the gallery wall, or to be freestanding as a sculpture or installation. The intensity of its visual presence elicits a powerful aesthetic response to the glow of color while, at the same time, never losing the immediacy that is rooted in its popular origins. Pop Art is so absorbed into the mainstream that it is invoked today almost as a retro phenomenon. However, the beauty of strip lighting is still able to evoke a mystery and theatricality that speaks of today. Transcending its commercial origins, it brings contemporary poetic responses to a fragile world in the everyday language of the 21st century.
