Neon, Nature and White Space
G
un Gordillo has been surrounded by art and literature since her childhood. She studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen. “During my time at the academy, I was fascinated by different materials and how it would be possible to use the daily materials such as light, lead, concrete etc. in an unexpected way, e.g., light and glass to create new spaces and change the common understanding of neon as a media for advertisement to a more poetic output with a different energy.” Gun began using neon lights as part of her installations and public space artwork dating back to 1974 after a journey to Cairo where she discovered a society filled with billboards and neon advertisements that were in direct contrast to their beautiful surroundings. “This confrontation of, for me nonverbal, messages and the placement of all these advertising signs fascinated me so much that it has followed me since,” she recounts. Gun adds that neon can allow one to play and create new spaces in dialogue
with different materials or with the day/night light. “I like the idea of the transitory,” she says. Even though Gun has a large portfolio of work—all inspired by daily life, movement, nature, music, and the unexpected—she says her favorite pieces are ones where she has worked with nature as a confrontation between the expected and unexpected. Some of these include La Forêt Imaginaire, 1988 where she placed neon sculptures between trees in a forest, and Le Pont Imaginaire, 1987 where her art was designed on a lake in the middle of Copenhagen as an imaginary reflection of the openings in a bridge close by. She also names her work at Hötorget metro station at Stockholm (1994) as a favorite. “The colourful advertisements above ground are in deep contrast to my white shapes underground. It is a reflection on my experiences with nature, light from the sea, and the ice in Stockholm,” she says. To view more of Gun’s work, please visit http://www.gordillo.dk/ or Last Resort gallery at www.lastresortgallery,com.
ArtDiction | 32| July/August 2020
