Solo exhibition by American artist Hap Tivey – an artist fascinated with the nature of light.
Opening New Years Eve, 31st December, 6pm at San Art, Ho Chi Minh City.
‘2000 Car Paintings’ is the name of a work of art by Hap Tivey that manipulates ideas of light. It is an installation that will consume the entire gallery space of San Art.
As a viewer, you will walk into a darkened space where the light of a projected image is thrown from the rear of the space onto a crafted sculpture of rubber. The audience will be able to see two different images from both sides of the projection screen.
The artist states: "When the video is running we may ‘see’ cars exploding, people in flames, bridges, buildings, water. When the video is paused, as it will periodically of its own accord, or if a viewer activates the pause function with the remote control, we can only see the abstract light falling on convoluted surfaces..."
"Every painting is a surface of light. We never see a ‘thing’ when we look at a painting. We see the light reflected from the surface and we imagine the ‘thing’ just as we imagine the illusion of a horse, a crucifixion or Cezanne’s wife. I began working with light in chambers in which one could only see light; one could not find any trace or suggestion of ‘things’. This work is a logical evolution of that beginning," he said.
Hap Tivey (b. 1947, Portland, Oregon, USA) began creating light installations and sculptures during the late 60s in Los Angeles. For more than thirty years, Tivey's art has investigated the phenomena of light. In installation, painting, sculpture and projection, he has pursued the concrete experience of light as well as the emotional and theoretical implications it holds for the human condition. Tivey’s work has a significant exhibition history in the USA and abroad, including representation in such public collections as Museum of Modern Art and Solomon. R. Guggenheim, New York, USA.
