Neon Lights and Moon Shadows
Seeing the light through the poetic audio-visual installations of Cerith Wyn Evans…
A fascination with light runs through the career of artist Cerith Wyn Evans since he started out making art films in collaboration with Derek Jarman during the early 1980s. But, for me, his work first came to light when I started teaching experimental photography and lens-based media around the turn of the millennia. I recall his ingenious photograph taken in Munich during the 1999 solar eclipse. It became a perennial image that I would share with classes, inspiring us to look the other way when searching for a picture to capture. It was a brilliant and clear illustration that often the most interesting, individual image is not to be found where the attention of the crowd is drawn. One key role of the photographer is to show us what we may have missed.
Whilst the majority of observers were, quite understandably, engrossed with watching this rare astronomical event through viewing filters, welding goggles, and similar safety apparatus, Evans demonstrated an artist’s understanding of light, remembering how the dappled shade of trees can act as a multi-aperture ‘pin-hole’ projector, throwing repeated images of the eclipse onto the pavement as it progressed. A moment of both simplicity and genius.
