This series of works began while I was making Love Saves the Day in 2020, so these two works sit in close relation in my head, for reasons I cannot fully account for.

They came by way of trying to think the ideas of that project, while sitting for long periods in my studio. At some point the idea occurred to marry the fluorescent fittings that light my studio, through a process of hand bending their bulbs, so that one fixture became joined to the other.

When I exhibited Love Saves the Day for the first time in 2020 in Neon Parc’s Brunswick gallery space, I installed these light works at the same time in their city gallery, as partnered shows.

An important piece for me in that show was the work titled ‘All Night Porch Light’, installed adjacent to the gallery entrance. With the narrative of Sister Alicia, that Love Saves the Day centred upon, I was held by the strange idea of home and of a mother which seemed to positively shape Mancuso—a home and a mother that were neither a home nor a mother, in any typical sense.

I think it is something many of us can relate to, every home has some kind of unrest, is slightly malformed, even if only by its own measure. But the story of Mancuso serves to remind us that splendour can arise from strange places, and in unexpected forms. If I was to offer a direct account of this work, I would say something of this sentiment is carried to the relatively ugly warm-white batten lights of my studio.

Related works:
Love Saves the Day (2020 & 2022)