A while ago I was asked to contribute to a BBC Radio 4 broadcast on the history of painting by numbers. During the making of the program I made contact with a former lecturer at Leeds College of Art or the Jacob Kramer College as it was then, Willem Volkersz. Willem had been working with painting by numbers concepts for a long time and was very interested in how 'low art' and 'high art' concepts could feed off each other. The painting by numbers concept had an inbuilt structural necessity, which meant that he had to keep his imagery very clear, so that every area of colour could have a defined space within which to exist, and therefore further colour mixing once the paint was applied had to be done optically. His interest in colour and culture, had then naturally moved on to include neon lights another 'low art' craft and so he began to integrate neon into his work.
Looking at Willem's images reminded me of how much working in neon tubing highlights drawing's ability to summarise a form or object. The extreme limitations imposed on the use of pure line by the glass tube technology is also a space where two aesthetics collide and collude, material specificity and form follows function. A neon tube can only be shaped in certain ways, therefore curves and lines have to follow certain very tight rules. The function of neon lighting arose out of the need for night time illumination, that also doubled up as a clear sign or advertisement for businesses that traded into the night. The necessary simple clarity of the signs led almost inevitably into the development of the 'logo' or visual summation of what a business or trade stood for. Neon also seemed to bring drawing and writing back together into the same visual world.
As a drawing medium it carries with it perhaps more cultural baggage than most, but this is its USP and artists that work with it, like Willem Volkersz, work with an understanding that they are appropriating the medium's history, alongside its extreme aesthetic.
The latest technology that is used for the production of neon light tubes uses PVC or Silicone and because of that they are less expensive and safer than traditional glass tubes. However this also changes the working constraints, and these newer forms can be bent in different ways and tend to encourage longer stretches of tubing. This shift in technology also begins to change the aesthetic potential of the medium.
Another interesting thing about neon is that it can be turned on and off.
Bruce Nauman often uses the fact that elements of a neon can be individually turned on and off. In the case above each figure can both poke and be poked in the eye. This is very physical in its effect and you sort of have to glance away as that aggressive 'poke' begins to work on your own protective/aggressive sensibilities.
In 1975, when Muhammad Ali had just finished a speech at Harvard University, a student in the audience asked him to improvise a poem: “Me/We” was the sharp response Ali came up with. Was it a gesture of solidarity between Ali and his white audience, or was it an underlining of their differences? Ligon turns the two word poem into a visual palindrome, the ability of neon to be turned on and off means that the words alternate. Each word is being lit (white) and unlit (black), but never both lit at the same time. Of course most political situations are deeply complex and there are rarely black or white answers, but Ligon's palindrome helps us see the ambiguity of points of view, in this case even standing on our heads we are faced with the same conundrum.
Light is a powerful medium and because of new technological advances in LED technology neon like tube drawing is becoming cheaper and more available to artists as a way of carrying ideas.
I'm not always convinced by its use, Tracy Emin's conversion of her own handwriting into neon is arguably taking the medium into a direction that is too personal; there being a conflict between the public demands of street imagery and the need for private emotional release. However in a time of selfies and the marketisation of private lives, perhaps Emin has made the right choice. Emin's neons are very popular and in the case above even installed in Number 10 Downing Street by the then prime minister David Cameron. Emin's signs reach a wide audience, and perhaps reflect society's need to be more open with emotions, things that a boy brought up during the 1950s was taught to hide and never admit to.
West Yorkshire has a very good local neon workshop, https://www.neonworkshops.com/ and they offer courses including basic introductions to the technology. At the moment they are co-hosting with the ArtHouse Wakefield a Fred Tschida exhibition, 'CIRCLESPHERE', so if you are interested in neon, there is a chance to see a world renowned neon artist's work locally.
https://the-arthouse.org.uk/ for details of what's on at the ArtHouse
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