Lightboxes

2021



Lightboxes (2021)

Music, 2021. Archival Duratrans print, wood, LEDs, plexiglas, acrylic paint. 87 x 122 x 6.5 cm. Edition of 3 (+1AP).

Feeling, 2021. Archival Duratrans print, wood, LEDs, plexiglas, acrylic paint. 87 x 122 x 6.5 cm. Edition of 3 (+1AP).

Sunlight, 2021. Archival Duratrans print, wood, LEDs, plexiglas, acrylic paint. 87 x 122 x 6.5 cm. Edition of 3 (+1AP).

Images courtesy of the artist and VITRINE gallery.

Originally created for the exhibition Along A Long So Long (VITRINE Basel, 2021) these three new works (Sunlight, Music and Feeling) take the form of A0 light boxes, each of which pairs text and image to create an ambiguous space of connection and disconnection. Etchells’ chosen images in these works are urban fragments – pictures of pavement or road surface, which feature prominent but unidentifiable stains or marks on the concrete or tarmac surface. These accidental spillages, splashes or seepages are at once more or less abstract drawings and traces of dysfunctional human activity and narrative. They also take on a metaphorical aspect – signs of another reality or of memory oozing through to stain the surfaces of an otherwise orderly environment. Paired with these images Etchells’ text fragments – akin to those used in his works on paper and neon sculptures – amplify the idea of trace, memory and secrets below the surface, creating a dynamic dialogue with the visual material and with the viewer’s imagination.