Winter Light 2003

Spencer Finch made this work, "Winter Light", with fluorescent lights and gels. Finch didn't paint a picture; he assembled it, using the readymade components of industrial design. The fluorescent lights and gels, made in factories, are materials of mass production. Arranged in this configuration, they offer a spectrum of colors – soft blues, greens, and pinks that evoke the transient quality of natural light. There's an inherent tension between the artwork's ethereal, atmospheric effect and the practical, even mundane nature of its materials. The artist's hand is less about traditional craftsmanship, and more about curating and arranging these elements to create a specific visual experience. It's almost like a painterly effect with the coldness of industrial materials. The choice of these materials engages with broader questions about labor and consumption. These are not materials crafted by hand but produced in factories, by workers largely unknown, for mass consumption. In “Winter Light,” Finch prompts us to reconsider the boundary between art and everyday life.