Constructed entirely on 16mm film, Light Music (shown at VIVID on Friday 25th February) brings the world of avant-garde film and sound together into a broad pioneering 1975 instillation, devised to both entrance and distress viewers into a puzzling state of two minds.
Accompanying black and white lines of sheer light projected mayhem onto two opposing walls, the dazzling and sometimes ear-piercing optical sounds grate an otherworldly ambience of jagged incoherence into consciousness, as eyes bounce from wall to wall in order to keep up with the enticing ocular frantic.
The flickers and flutters become beautifully unbearable, as Lis Rhodes draws her viewers into an almost subliminal position, interconnecting with the onset experiment.
While the black and white patterns begin to evolve in more complex speeds, breaking optics and viewers ideas to draining yet captivating frustrations of enthralment.
With the occasional silhouette of the general public thrown into the mix, the effect is enhanced greatly within the instillation environment, as viewer’s interactions build upon the experiment in order to take away an individual experience as well as an all-seeing one.
Light Music is sure to burn miraculous, forward-thinking inductions into your retina, with groundbreaking visions that sought the future of illuminations and sounds combined.
Lis Rhodes’ Light Music was part of VIVID’s ‘The Garage presents…’ a brand new strand of one off events embracing music, live arts, installation, performance, and films.
Text: Ross Cotton
Image: Courtesy Lis Rhodes and LUX, London.
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