Tim Noble and Sue Webster - Light Sculptures

Light Sculptures

The light sculptures, created in tandem with their shadow investigations, are constructed out of computer sequenced light-bulbs that perpetually flash, sending out messages of, often simultaneous, love and hate. The sculptures reference the iconic pop culture symbols of Britain and America, recalling carnival shows and signage typical of working-class sea-side Britain, Piccadilly Circus, Las Vegas and Times Square.

As with almost all of their work, many of the Light Sculptures are meant to be contradictory, and to produce conflicting feelings in the viewer. This is certainly the case with their early light sculpture, ‘Toxic Schizophrenia’, 1997 (right). The relentlessly flashing heart with a knife stuck through it fuses a Christian emblem with a cliché rock ‘n' roll tattoo. As with the shadow sculptures, duality lies at its core; the work represents romance and pain, love and hate, friendship and alienation, negative and positive.

The same contradictions resonate at the centre of their later work, ‘Sacrificial Heart’, 2008, a three dimensional rotating version of ‘Toxic Schizophrenia’, which, like the earlier work, is both repellent and strangely alluring.'Toxic Schizophrenia (Hyper Version)' was their first permanent public sculpture, unveiled at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, May 2009.

Contradictions and irony abound in the works exhibited at the Gagosian, Beverley Hills exhibition, ‘Instant Gratification’, 2001. The twenty foot long revision of their original 1997 ‘Forever’ is inextricably linked to the artist’s earlier trips to Las Vegas, playing with the traditional connotations of the word, as the constantly flashing lights reinforce the idea of ‘forever’.

With ‘A Pair of Dollars' they attempted to form an ironic response to the art market and art fairs, creating what Noble described as a ‘vulgar’ artwork, in order to demonstrate their annoyance with this system. However, he has since acknowledged the failure of this irony, due to the huge success of the piece.

‘Puny Undernourished Kid & Girlfriend from Hell’ (Puny Undernourished Kid shown left), represents another return to earlier work, as it derives from cartoon-like drawings that Noble and Webster had made of each other ten years before. These large neon figures are covered with neon tattoos of aggressive and forceful statements, clearly demonstrating the influence of punk rock on the artists.