Commissioned for presentation in Riga, Tim Etchells’ neon “Kad tu šo lasi” is his first work realised in Latvian. The 7.5m long and 4m high neon sculpture combines two similar but not identical phrases Kad tu šo lasi domā par pagātni and Kad tu šo lasi domā par nākotni (when you read this think about the future and when you read this think about the past) which invite the reader into two very different thought-experiments. Rendered with one phrase in red and one in blue “Kad to šo lasi” invokes a playful visual complexity as the differently coloured phrases interweave with each other, mirroring and amplifying the game of textual echo and difference in the text of the work.

About Tim Etchells’ neon and LED works
Etchells’ neon and LED pieces often draw on his broader fascinations as an artist, writer and performance maker, exploring contradictory aspects of language – the speed, clarity and vividness with which it communicates narrative, image and ideas, and at the same time its amazing propensity to create a rich field of uncertainty and ambiguity.

Through simple phrases spelt out in neon, LED and other media, Etchells strives to create miniature narratives, moments of confusion, awkwardness, reflection and intimacy in public and gallery settings. Encountering the neon sign works, in the streets of a city or in the space of a white cube gallery, the viewer becomes implicated in a situation that’s not fully revealed, or a linguistic formulation that generates confusion or ambiguity. As often in Etchells’ work, in the neons the missing parts of the picture are as important as the elements that are present. Invoking a story, or projecting an idea out-of-context, the work invites us in, but into what exactly we can’t be sure.