Compressed-elements-as-peacock-tail.jpg

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Description:
JOSHUA WEBB

Compressed elements as peacock tail. 2008
Fluorescent lights, coloured gels, 
wood, table & vinyl sticker.
Installation shot: Collapsing supernova

The work employs the history and deferred
symbolic meaning of Mendeleev’s Table 
(The Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements),
removing the tables functionality, eliminating all
textual information and leaving behind just the
shell of the system; its coloured geometry. 
The accompanying sculptural element is
consequently endowed  with the tables residual
meaning, the form becomes overloaded from
the weight of its own being as heat produced
from the super-saturated, 
multicoloured fluorescent star melts the bonds
of its own existence, literally melting the hot
glue that holds the fluorescent light structure
together.