John Schlesinger Artist Statement
I create ceiling and wall mounted assemblages built from neon, lab equipment, photographs and rebar pulled from demolition sites. The works triangulate a conversation between sculpture, photography and light. I call them neon hybrids.
The work interrogates normative 2-dimensional mounting traditions. It cannot be shipped and simply hung. I insist on constructing them site-responsively, growing and grabbing across each unique space like a virus infecting its host.
The material references a network of ideas which I pull from repeatedly. The photographs often represent previous assemblages and installations, revealing an auto-cannibalistic slant in my practice. The demolition-sourced rebar presents an indexical representation of the trauma it underwent through the process of demolition. The rebar pieces emerge from the rubble like 3D scars. The lab equipment I deploy reflects my experimental and alchemistic approach to building. I cast the form of the neon to mimic the twisted, 3-dimensional drawing of the demolition rebar. The neon functions as a glowing, fragile, anti-shadow of the dull, scrap rebar. Neon also serves to penetrate the surface of the photographs, lighting them both front and back. The works light themselves like deep-sea bioluminescent predators.
2/23/2024