Light & Space
Phillip K Smith III (American b. 1972) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. His works are deceptively simple in their appearance yet compelling in their design; the works morph with the environment and the viewers interacting with them, breathing and exuding a life of their own. In October 2013, Smith III launched a project titled, “Lucid Stead,” in Joshua Tree, CA. This work is composed of an abandoned shed overlaid with mirrors and lights. This concept creates the effect of a house suspended in space, blending with the desert landscape, reflecting the light of dawn to the glow of the sunset. “Lucid Stead,” became an unexpected phenomenon, attracting attention from around the world and establishing Smith as breakthrough artist. In April of 2014, Smith III evolved his aesthetic with, “Reflection Field,” a massive-scale installation that marked its debut at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, to over 200,000 festival-goers. “Reflection Field,” gave rise to giant mirrored monoliths that erase the division of light and space, making the earth and sky an otherworldly canvas.
Describe some of the inspirations for your work?
Light, shadow, color, space, environment, distillation of form, and change. All of my work is a mixture, to some degree, of these elements. Within these mediums, I am searching for a pure, sublime experience that requires the viewer to question one’s surroundings, one’s own perception, and one’s own ability for description.
Can you elaborate on some of the technology behind your works that utilize LED lighting?
I have always been fascinated with technology. Many of the pieces that I am creating would not have been possible to create just 10 years ago. The tools that are available to artists today are shocking…Shockingly exciting and shockingly accessible. Through traditional tools and the most cutting-edge, so much is possible…and this inventory of materials and tools is changing every day. With this said, every one of my projects, no matter what, begins through the simple act of drawing.
Can you also speak about and compare the progression of your recent large- scale installations? How has the dialogue linked between Lucid Stead in Joshua Tree, CA to Reflection Field at the Coachella music festival to Four Windows and a Doorway in a gallery setting and finally now, Bent Parallel on the oceanfront at the Untitled international art fair in Miami?
The process and progression has been one of refinement and discovery. Lucid Stead evolved out of spending time in the raw desert of Joshua Tree over the course of 8 years…with no particular project in mind. When it came to be, it was as raw and connected to the place as it could possibly be…which is why I think it has affected so many people. Within the creation of Lucid Stead were my own expectations as well as many discoveries.
The progression of the work through these various projects has been about following these discoveries, while changing the mixture of ingredients of those mediums I first mentioned: Light, shadow, color, space, environment, distillation of form, and change. Lucid Stead combined all of these into one work. Four Windows and a Doorway turned Lucid Stead inside out and removed the environment, allowing color to mix through spatial and perspectival relationships. Reflection Field returned to the outdoors bringing back the environment, light, and shadow, but now with the knowledge of the spatial relationships of reflected color.
Bent Parallel is the first step forward in a series of installations and sculptures that look at these precise spatial relationships of reflected color. Specifically, Bent Parallel bends two parallel surfaces to create a third reflected, material-less, zero- thickness floating plane of color that is the mixture of the colors of the two bent planes. Standing in front of the piece, you see yourself, for example, as red on the left and green on the right, while a yellow plane (the mixture of red and green light) extends outward into space. Stepping up to the mirrored surface, you see yourself draped in color as your mind deciphers the spatial realities in front of you. Are you looking through a transparent colored field to an actual space beyond? What is real space and what is reflected space? In addition, Bent Parallel and the other associated installations can have different effects in different locations. Bent Parallel within a dark space removes 90% of the environmental reflections, allowing light, color, and change to dominate. Within a natural or lit environment, the relationship reverses, allowing the reflected surroundings to dominate, while being subtly tinted by the paced change of color.
How does the recent career success affect your artistic practice?
It has provided opportunity for continued focus and progression of thought, balanced with the invite of new experimentation. The scale of current projects in the studio range from pieces you can carry in your hands to an 8 story installation. If people have liked what they’ve seen so far…just wait!
What is next for your work? Tell us about some of your future projects and ideas?
There are multiple large-scale private commissions that, by contract, I am not allowed to discuss. But, if implemented, they will be incredibly memorable and powerfully sublime. There are also several large-scale projects that I can talk about that are in different stages of development such as Parallel Perpendicular, which will be 5 mirrored and lit volumes floating in a park in West Hollywood, CA or Line to Circle & Arc-Line-Arc, which are two corten steel, light and shadow works to be installed in Arlington, VA. In addition to these larger works, I am developing smaller scaled Lucid Stead-inspired wall works, new light and shadow pieces, committing to 100 unique Faceted Discs over the next 10 years (10 released each year) as well as more intimately scaled versions of the color and reflection works that focus on these aforementioned precise spatial and perspectival relationships of color mixing.
MUSINGS ON “BENT PARALLEL” THE INSTALLATION IN MIAMI FOR UNTITLED
What was your main focus / objective / purpose for Bent Parallel?
To create a work for the Untitled international art fair that would define the first step in this new investigation of the spatial and perspectival relationship of color, light, and reflection. To create an installation that operates at both the scale of the show and the intimate scale of the individual.
Can you speak about the significance of Bent Parallel’s size range? (i.e. 8 feet is just a bit beyond “human scale” vs. the towering nature of Reflection Field; and is there a significance to the 21 foot length that provides pitch perfect mappings of perception-bending “floating planes?”)
I wanted the ability to stand up close to the piece and to allow the color and reflection to extend beyond your periphery, while preserving the ability to stand back and discern the formal relationship of the piece. So, the 8’10” dimension accommodates this reality, while the 21’6” horizontal relationship responds directly to one’s periphery. This horizontality also allows the colored planes to feel like they are fully extending into space…responding directly to the scale of the surrounding environment.
Can you elaborate on the zones of color chosen specifically for Bent Parallel?
The color programming works within the realities of color mixing of red, green, and blue light…matching pure colors with pure colors and pure colors with mixed colors.
Can you describe in more detail how the reflections operate, manifest and play off one another?
Bent Parallel bends two parallel surfaces to create a third reflected, material-less, zero-thickness floating plane of color that is the mixture of the colors of the two bent planes. Standing in front of the piece, you see yourself, for example, as red on the left and green on the right, while a yellow plane (the mixture of red and green light) extends outward into space. Stepping up to the mirrored surface, you see yourself draped in color as your mind deciphers the spatial realities in front of you. Are you looking through a transparent colored field to an actual space beyond? What is real space and what is reflected space?
In addition, Bent Parallel and the other associated installations can have different effects in different locations. Bent Parallel within a dark space removes 90% of the environmental reflections, allowing light, color, and change to dominate. Within a natural or lit environment, the relationship reverses, allowing the reflected surroundings to dominate, while being subtly tinted by the paced change of color.
ARTIST: PHILLIP K SMITH III
HOMETOWN: INDIO, CA
WEB: ROYALEPROJECTS.COM