Something mysterious happened in Jersey City this past Monday night… On this grey and windy evening, while most people were at home watching TV, giant neon lights emerged up in the windows of an abandoned factory, spelling out the sentence: “It is green thinks nature – even in the dark”.
The neon-light public art installation is visible from the surrounding area, from the New Jersey Turnpike, and even from the air for incoming and outbound flights. The goal of the illuminated art piece, sponsored by the Precipice Alliance, is to spark public discussion about global warming, energy conservation and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Via Core77
Lest you think this is just a meaningless art prank, conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll took the philsophy behind the piece seriously and put her money where her mouth is, using green materials and renewable energy throughout the execution. The neon lighting is low-watt and carbon neutral, and the lead-free glass tubing was donated by TecnoLux, a pioneer in the application of new eco-conscious materials for the neon and lighting industry. In addition to this, all energy for the project will be offset by a combination of solar panels and green credits.
If more artists would relate their work to such pressing issues as global warming, the world would certainly be a cooler place.
We unfortunately missed the event (sorry Benjamin!) but thankfully our friends at Core77 were on hand to report back.
reminds me of Jenny Holzer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Holzer
This reminds me only of Carroll’s work, like her early seminal piece that utilized Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal or all of the other neon works that she has executed. Holzer would never be this generous intellectually, conceptually or pragmatically. You are right, the mistake that curators like Mary Jane Jacob made—no relation to Jane Jacobs in the eighties was to have the artist act as social worker/politician—-MiWon Kwan discussed this issue extensively in her book and Carroll understands the roles and what needs to be done on the ground to not make the work be a gratuitous gesture. I missed the event as well, but it will be up until the end of May and I hope that I will fly into Newark and see it from the plane.
I think this king of art is really interesting it got me to think for days until I looked it up