"... Peter Terezakis' light installation powerfully suggests
heat lightning fragmenting the desert's night air..."
--Jennifer Dunning, Of New Mexico As A Dreamland
The New York Times (Arts Section) March 2, 2000
The first intentional
outdoor light sculpture consisted of ten vertical
elements,
eight feet in height, fifty feet apart, and described the topographic contour
of a pastoral landscape in Reading
Pennsylvania in (1996). |
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Since then, this installation has
been recreated and repeated in a variety of settings on several
continents---always at twilight, always for just a few hours
into the night ---and it is always different.
Each time I have the opportunity
to create one of these installations, my mind is flooded by metaphors which
spring to mind.
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There is an uneven pushing
back of the gathering dark as flashes of light seem to depict an uneven
arc of some imagined life. Revisited memories
of frailty, vulnerability, and ultimate temporality; a quiet
stand against the inevitable.
Also book ended within the play of light and shadow is a dwelling place for mystery,
promise, the sinusoidal flow of power, and the framing of unanswerable questions. |
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| That is the magic
of twilight (far from things man made) beneath an open, unforgiving sky speaking. That and the gift of standing
witness to the every day miracle
of day
becoming
night with the freeing of imagination and memory. |
Memories like candles in church, catching
fireflies by the jar full, bonfires at the beach. Memories
beget memories. Like driving with my father through the Connecticut
countryside. Remembering that once upon a time I was a child, and felt somehow removed
from the affairs of the world. Remembering how speeding along, warm, in the vibrating womb of our car, dad's strong hands on the chrome and black steering wheel, my nose and forehead pressed against the cool window,
hands cupping my temples, I would run my eyes over forested green
hills,
probing
the shadows,
exploring the mysteries of the landscape, all to feel the patient return caress as we traveled
safely over the body
of the earth.
A life-time later, with other memories added, this work has become
a digital metaphor
for
life
and
death;
of
being
and not. Like fireflies in flight, the flashes of light
invoke a sensation of physical movement across a landscape of time
and
imagination,
changing the way I see everything.
Peter Terezakis,
San Diego, December 2003 |
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