Untitled (Experiments with Light) is an array of 12 light experiments from 2001 by American artist Matt Mullican. The light boxes are displayed in an obscure rectangular space of 2 by 3 meters, which enables the visitor to gain an insight into the cosmological universe of the artist. Consisting of back-lit photograms showing artificial stills on a black background, mounted in light boxes, they make reference to the four elements of water, fire, earth and air. The projected light, so to speak, confers meaning onto the works.
Untitled (Experiments with Light) is embedded in Mullican’s reflections on subjectivity and objectivity, and the problematically tenuous relationship between reality and fictional reality. His first investigations in the 1970s with light patterns were made under green light.
Located in a sphere somewhere above everyday reality, the symbolic phenomena representing language, value systems, the arts, science, myth and religion fade into a realm Mullican calls ‘Pure Meaning’. The artist identifies this level with the unconscious, spiritual aspect of existence.
