IAN WHITTLESEA – A BREATHING BULB
2014-08-11A single bulb in the centre of the space repeatedly fades up to an intense brightness and back down to black. The slow pulse of the bulb is that of meditation and transformation, the light strengthening in the same way that an abdomen rises during inhalation and then dimming as it falls during exhalation. During the day it is quietly present but at night it transforms the gallery into a lighthouse, visible from the street below.
With this new work Whittlesea continues his examination of how conceptual art can directly change the physiological and psychic state of the viewer. It is an extension of his exploration of the esoteric Mazdaznan breathing exercises that artist Johannes Itten taught at the Bauhaus, the renowned art school founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar.
A Breathing Bulb also relates directly to a sentence taken from the writings of scientist and alchemist Isaac Newton that Whittlesea has used as the basis for one of his recent series of text paintings:
The changing of bodies into light, and light into bodies, is very comfortable to the course of Nature, which seems delighted with transmutations.
Exhibition runs through to September 6th, 2014
Marlborough Fine Art
6 Albemarle Street
London W1S 4BY
United Kingdom
