Light Music and Weights of Light

Light Music

Lis Rhodes, 1975

16mm black-and-white film, shown as video, 2 projections, dual mono sound

Tate: Presented by Tate Members 2012

To make this artwork, Rhodes composed a ‘score’ comprised of drawings that were printed onto filmstrip. They form abstract patterns of black and white lines onscreen. As the bands of light and dark pass through the projector they are ‘read’ as audio, creating an intense soundtrack. This creates a direct relationship between what we see and what we hear. The crossing projection beams achieve a sculptural quality within the space, encouraging us to move through and interact with the light beams. This is an early example of expanded cinema, in which viewers are both spectators and participants.

Weights of Light

Mikala Dwyer, 2022

Plastic, cable/straps, fixings

Courtesy the artist

Commissioned by ACMI

A family of translucent and ethereal bodies glide through the air, multiplying as their reflections spread across windows and glass surfaces. Depending on your perspective, and how they absorb and refract the light, they appear solid or intangible, flicking between visibility and invisibility. After all, these are “empty sculptures”, “shapes of nothing” according to artist Mikala Dwyer. But through the simple phenomena of light, material and form, and by contorting scale, Dwyer lets us imagine ourselves somehow drawn through them, like the atrium windows drawing the outside light, that elemental medium that has endlessly fascinated artists.