Ariadnes Dream 2000 - 1

A site specific programmed light installation of 640  tungsten lamps forming a woven web and acting in concert with the fluctuations of solar light. There are 6 separate channels of lights fading and emanating in a wave like sequence over a period of 10 minutes. The electrically generated light is sometimes eclipsed by the predominance of the fluctuating and unpredictable ambient solar light. Sometimes  the 2 sources of light are mutually co present as light on light, and sometimes  the electrical light appears to  predominate, suffusing the space with an interior luminescence.  The subject of Ariadne's Dream is the work done, the labour of the weaving, the consumption of energy to make light and  the movement of the earth around the sun. The gallery becomes a temporary holding station for the conjunction of energies, both light and heat.

'…Ariadne's Dream comes in and out of sight, in concert with the ever changing light of Cornwall which both illuminates and hides it. The orchestration of the artificial light is delayed, hindered by its internal order, slowed again by the play of natural light. It illuminates the uncertain frontier between appearance and disappearance, order and disorder. The invisible enters as a visible sign of cognizance. Absence and presence are signaled to us by the intervals of darkness and light, coming in and out of sight. Ariadne's Dream, like her namesake's thread is an infinite drawing at the limits of sight. '

Juliet Steyn and Richard Appignanesi Introduction to catalogue Ariadnes Dream Newlyn Gallery 2000