James Clar: Lite-Brite For Grown-Ups

James Clar is one of my favorite installation artists. I'm a museum troll--I can go back and look at an artwork and be absorbed again and again. But the pieces that make me want to sit down--to BE with them for as long as I'm allowed--those are rare. James Clar's work does that to me though.




I'd almost always prefer to be by myself with his work, and I think that's the way it's best experienced. There are exceptions- one of my favorite pieces, "Starlight" (2007), lures the viewer's gaze upward, away from fellow-observers who are forgotten. It doesn't matter that there are other people standing under the lights with you- it's like wearing headphones to watch a movie in a theater with an audience full of people you can't see, can't touch.





So much light, so much quiet. The only sound is the soft, safe hum of the high-power lights. Take off your iPods- if you've got music, you're not alone.