Entry 57

Rashid Johnson's Cosmic Topology

 image taken from: http://www.davidkordanskygallery.com/?aid=20&n=artists

Rashid Johnson's work perfectly illustrates how the object being lit is just as important a factor to consider in lighting as the lights used in the scene. Certain areas of this piece, Cosmic Topology, really stand out due to their brightness, but the light on the piece is fairly uniform. The golden spray paint reflects the light in such a way that we see more light coming from those areas than any other. This is obviously due to the simple nature of reflections and such but I bring it up because it again shows what you can do when you use the item being lighted in your lighting design. The light shown on this object is white; yet, thanks to the reflective color of the metal we see yellow light. With a single white light and five highly reflective yellow spots the whole lighting look is changed from white to yellow.