The One Light, 2008

The inspiration for an obscure piece of work in various shades of black came from having been given a padded back-support car seat cover as a birthday present.

The scale and outline shape of this shallow cushion clearly relates to the human form, but with the quality of the fabric elegantly emphasising the regular pattern of shallow domes contained within its outline, it was far too nice an object to be sat on. An art object was there for the making, but some form of contrast was needed, and what better than a linear strip of light !

The padded fabric being pliable, it seemed only reasonable that it should not be presented totally flat; thus a shallow space frame was created describing a suitably enigmatic space, one end being deeper than the other. There is a subtle tension in the fact that the recumbent neon tube light is quite straight, resting delicately on the upper and lower edges of the angled back rest. The central part, the equivalent to the small of one’s back, lies in space, oblivious of any potential weakness or pain that the cushion is there to comfort.

In the act of making this construction, I realised there was a further symbolic element to this work – reference to the Christian religion. Whereas, through the Passion of Jesus Christ, the crucifix became the significant symbol of Christianity it could reasonably be argued that a single, upright line of light might represent the moment of the Jesus’s birth; a single, supine body wrapped up comfortably, arms to the side, lying in a manger.