Weight of Light

Weight of Light was a solo show commissioned by the York Festival of Ideas 2019. An installation of nearly a thousand optical prisms hung from the ceiling of St Mary’s Church, lit with six video projections, formed the centrepiece of the exhibition. The bottom portion of prisms were dipped in black resin, the central prisms were crackled through heat treatment, and the top prisms were clear. As the prisms moved, they threw rainbows and shadows around the room, as well as reflecting parts of the room and flickers of constantly changing colour. Process drawings and studies accompanied the installation along with a short video.

Weight of Light explores optics and references the theories of light of Newton and Goethe. They both experienced the same phenomena through a different lens, coming to different conclusions. Through the interplay of colour, light and dark, Carr comments on how aspects of both theories are correct and that there is truth in every perspective.

With perception, experience and the notion of potential in mind, we might tread carefully in assuming certainty in the present empirical paradigm. There is value in intuition and sensory experience when formulating new theories. A practice of revisiting the age-old, simple yet powerful questions that drive us; the questions that stir our souls and touch the very root of our being.

The shifting light and shadows allude to the elusive nature of understanding, and the crystalisation of complex ideas into a unified whole; the creative process of discovering a truth in nebulous uncertainties.