The Peninsula Hong Kong’s light bulb moment, and the clever illusion of a sculpture in steel that’s barely there
‘A sculpture of a drawing of a light bulb’ is how artist Michael Craig-Martin describes his Bright Idea 2016, a work that intentionally misleads but has, he hopes, a clear message
A giant light bulb has emerged out of The Peninsula hotel’s fountain – except it isn’t really a light bulb, but a yellow, four-metre high steel sculpture, if something as thin as a line counts as sculpture.
Bright Idea 2016 is British artist Michael Craig-Martin’s playful intervention in the hotel courtyard, set up to coincide with Art Basel Hong Kong. The hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui commissioned the steel outline of a light bulb for the fourth edition of its “Love Art at The Peninsula” project in collaboration with Britain’s Royal Academy of Arts.
“Even though it is made of steel and is heavy, there is no mass to it. It is simply a line. Sculptures that are representational usually mimic the three-dimensional form of the object or person. Mine is a sculpture of a drawing of a light bulb. It is an illusionism of two dimensions, and not three,” the artist says. “Also, it looks as if it lights up at night because of the surrounding lights but it isn’t really.”
Even the way it is installed is meant to mislead. “The base of this heavy structure is hidden in the planter behind the fountain. It looks weightless. It takes away the pressure of gravity and since it’s a light bulb, it has to do with ideas floating without being restrained,” he explains.
“A lot of what I do is like being a magician who tells people how the trick is done, but still manages to surprise people.”
