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Daniel Steegmann MangranéNe voulais prendre ni forme, ni chair, ni matière2020Installation (plywood, paint, plaster, diffusion fabric)Installation dimensions variable
Triangle: 332 x 790 cm
Frustum: 274 x 650 x 100 cmThe work brings together two light interventions: a large triangular opening in the ceiling and a head-high funnel-shaped construction narrowing toward an aperture.
The experience of the room, which should be lit entirely by natural light, is fundamentally altered by the juxtaposition of these two elements. The light entering the space through the ceiling opening changes according to the time of the day, yet also retains the geometric shape. As such it may constitute a counterpoint to the geometry of the space.
The built-out form—known in geometry as a frustum, in effect a cut-off pyramid—creates the sense of a passageway opening into darkness. Looking into the funnel toward the dark, the concrete phenomenological effects evoke a long tradition of encounters with natural light, drawing attention to the subjectivity of perception and its metaphorical associations.
While the rectangular openings recall the windows found in ecclesiastic architecture and its tradition of controlling light (e.g. as a marker of the divine), yet also obliquely refer to the work of 20th century light & space artists constructing environments to shape light.
The title is taken from a poem by Stela do Patrocínio, a Brazilian writer who was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and kept in institutional confinement by her family between 1962 and 1992.
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