The sun, the moon, the stars, fire as well as a TV, a computer screen, illuminated ads, and neon lights – the majority of commercial visuality and created images – are based on looking at material as light or looking at the light source and on the attraction of light. Looking at light gives us an impression of looking at something outside from inside. Even if we were watching TV located on the back of a room, we would have a feeling of looking at something which is outside – the outside world. Light is like a way out, outside. The light, external, attracts us, and themes such as the internalization of light, the transformation into light, or the enlightenment can be found in many religions. Technology required for the “non-material” (or so-called immaterial) consumption actually requires massive production based on raw materials. What are the grounds for the desire to become estranged from the primary material existence of substances, and for the fascination of the artificial reality of the illusionary world filtered by technology?

I have made this work of an illuminated billboard, on the light surface of which I have glued my own body hair and made a human figure out of them. These “animal-like” hairs are a symbol of a human body, a fleshless drawing pierced by a blinding light; a relic of the lost body merged in light.

© Timo Heino, 2006