Dan Flavin

Dan Flavin (April 1, 1933, Jamaica, New York – November 29, 1996, Riverhead, New York) was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures.

Dan Flavin's large-scale work in colored fluorescent light for six buildings at the Chinati Foundation was initiated in the early 1980s, although the final plans were not completed until 1996. The work was inaugurated at the museum's annual Open House in October 2000.

Two parallel tilted corridors are constructed at the connecting arms of each U-shaped building. These corridors contain light barriers that are placed either in the center or at the end of each corridor. The barriers consist of eight-foot-long fluorescent light fixtures, occupying the entire height and width of the corridor. The tubes are installed with space between them, allowing a view through the barrier. Each fixture holds two differently colored bulbs shining in opposite directions. The barriers in the six buildings utilize four colors: pink, green, yellow, and blue. The first two buildings use pink and green, the next two yellow and blue, and the last two buildings bring all four colors together. Two windows at the end of each long arm of the U allow daylight to enter the building and permit a view into the vast landscape.

Flavin was an artist who loved to work with film and different hue saturation's within them. He also loved the huge variations in color and he used light to explore this variation. His work would sometimes consist if the same object repeated, but lit up by a different light. The color of the light greatly changed the way you look at the artwork and gives a completely new feeling than it would of if it was just a single color.

I found the idea of using different color light very interesting and decided to do a few experiments of my own. I took my response to Nicholas Wright and rendered different filters through the light to change the color of the response. I had a cyan, purple as well as a red filter and came up with 3 different responses which all come from the same original piece. The only difference in them is the color of the light and as you look into them one by one, each contains it's own atmosphere and links back to my original idea of light creating an illusion.

Cyan Filter

Purple Filter

Red Filter

I decided to use another piece of media as a response which is video. Dan Flavin often used film in his artwork and demonstrated how different filters of light changed the mood of a room. Carrying from what I had above, I created a small light box. I used one of my photographs of an arcade and used the different color filters to fill the room with various colors. I also made an affect of the light turning on and off rapidly and switching the filters while doing so. I used red, blue and green pieces of fabrics and plastics and placed them at the top and then was able to get light through with various effects.

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Here is the set in different colors: