Rob Ireson dropped by rather late in the show, handing in four objects, probably to up his odds at getting at least one of them turned into a sculpture despite my packed shelves and the short time left. They were all very mundane, which is perfectly al right, but still somewhat inspiring. One of them, a severely broken and battered but also already fixed bicycle rear light, was very ugly as an object but could produce blinking patterns in several beautiful series. The light pattern captivated me and I decided to make it the focus of a piece.

Fallen off the bike one too many times, Rob found it at the side of the road.

Taken on its own the object looks just like so many other cheap plastic consumables around us, but when you forget about the object and focus on the lights so many new possibilities open up. It immediately reminded me of a ship, with its long, slender shape (I am talking here of the pattern of lights), so in a way, the piece was already made.

Click the link below to see the sequence of lights.

Click for movie of distress call

Rob is attending the Art in Public programme at the Ulster University, so we ended up talking about the role of the artist in society, and the precarious position of culture in times of economical downturns. This was also on my mind when I put together this art object for him.

Object no. 26