Promise of a better world 2011

Here we have an undated piece called, "Promise of a better world," by Jose Davila, born in 1974. He's made it from bricks and neon. I wonder what Jose was thinking when he made this? Did he have some really specific idea in mind? Or was he just messing around and let the bricks speak to him? I love the way the neon makes these very familiar, very basic forms look so seductive. You know, everyone's been building walls for centuries, and most of them aren't lit up with neon. Maybe Jose wanted to give this wall a kind of halo, or maybe he wanted to make it look like a stage set or a movie prop. Like, what's behind the wall? And what's going to happen next? Artists are constantly responding to each other's work and ideas. I wonder if Jose was looking at the minimalist sculptures of the 60s and 70s, when he made this. Whatever the answer, I'm glad he made it, and I'm glad we can look at it and think about how things fit together, and how things fall apart.