LET THERE BE LIGHT

Seoul, South-Korea, 2017 
4m x 1.2m x 0.1m 
LED lamps, Fixtures, and Black contact papers

Let There Be Light explores the relationship between visuality and semantics. Inspired by a Korean proverb about illiteracy, "Black is a letter and white is paper," Let There Be Light investigates what happens when a letter loses its meaning and has only form. In other words, when a letter does not have meaning in the eyes of the beholder, that letter becomes pure form. But is it possible for a symbol to recover its meaning?

This light installation investigates the tie between visuality and meaning through a reinterpretation of passages from the most common, beloved and controversial books in the world:  the Bible. This work began by transforming the first passages of Genesis into symbolic form, beginning with the iconic verse, "Let there be light." Transforming this verse into morse code using simple black beads marked the first step towards conveying meaning without using letters. The resulting form of the black beads against a white page was then translating into LED lamps, giving literal meaning to the coded words. Black is no longer letters, and white is no longer paper: there is only darkness and, by definition, light.  

Let There Be Light, black pearls and hardboard paper, 39cm L x 27cm W, 2017