BRILLIANT

Chris Levine and Thierry Dreyfus trip light fantastic-Mar/April2002

The average person only notices light when it’s bad, but sometimes light can do more than just set a mood. « Light is all too often taken for granted because it is so much a part of how we function as living beings, » says artist Chris Levine. « But when it’s taken out of a familiar context, invariably people respond to its beauty. » Levine works with lasers, holographics and sensory media, often collaborating on images with photographers Nick Thornton-Jones and Warren du Preez. Lasers, Levine explains, are by definition light in its purest form. (The image above is a laser projection cast onto a wall, a freeze-frame of an evolving organic form.) In addition to developing a line of lighting products for Habitat (don’t expect your run-of-the-mill reading lamps), Levine is currently working on iy-project, a sound and vision installation that had its first DVD release last summer.The project includes outdoor laser light works for events such as the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, where laser imagery was tuned to bass-level audio-wave forms.