Moot Icon Pt. 2
Meh heh heh…
Oh yeh.
I did actually put the LEDs on temporarily the last time I was in the studio, but I wanted to surprise you. I’ve taped them on a bit better now – with a lot more of it. Making a feature of the gaffer tape also adds to the feel of it, I think.
Apparently there’s something about twinkling lights that encourages people to spiritual visions. I’m sure that Richard Dawkins would suggest that its all part of the way the human brain has evolved, and that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about God, yadda yadda… But there you go. It is what it is, and I’m happy to go with it for the moment.
Since I was last in the studio, the black electrician’s tape has come away from the wood a little bit. I’m slightly concerned, as I don’t want this to keep happening every time. It might just be the damp air – my studio has a lot of moisture in the air, which has lead to all sorts of problems in the past – and its impossible to heat it up sufficiently to deal with the problem.
I like the idea that the icon could look like a piece of wood found on a building side – with boot-prints all over it, coffee mug stains, etc. There’s something about the urban-ness of it that suits moot‘s ethos. The burntness is part of that. I don’t know how to depict the table, wine-glass or bread in that vein, though.
With chewing gum, maybe.
More photos will be added as the piece changes and is worked on.
technorati tags:radcliffe, moot, icon, work-in-progress, rublev, trinity,
artbizness 
September 3, 2007 at 3:43 pm
mike that looks fab! love your choice of burning the figures on rather than painting. makes me think of how we can’t see god but we can see some of what god does… a sense of what’s left in god’s wake almost – an interesting concept for an icon, or the practice of prayer when you don’t quite know what’s happene but you know you have changed…
can’t wait to see how it develops.
September 4, 2007 at 7:16 am
Why thank you, my dear!
That’s kind of what I was thinking of when I was making it. I’m not sure whether or not what I’m doing fits in with the traditional concept of what an icon is for. Icons tend to be a way to say: “Here is God”, rather than “God was here.”
Sometimes knowing too much about art history things can be a hinderance to making a painting rather than a help, so I’m happy to be blissfully ignorant – for now.
The fact that we’re having this conversation now suggests to me that the work is coming from somewhere else – somewhere bigger than just the little old painter…!