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Lucid Shadows by Lyn Godley

“Color, color, color, pattern and shape", these terms were once used to describe the design work of Godley-Schwan, Lyn Godley and Lloyd Schwan's successful design company active from 1984 to 2000. Those descriptions could Godley, who for the last two decades has devoted her efforts to an investigation of light as an artistic medium. Lyn Godley's work is not about a particular style, but rather about an approach driven by exploration of the qualities that emerge as light is reflected and diffused, as light interacts with materials, and as viewers experience a dialogue with these effects. This process is grounded in Godley's love of making, which is driven by the tactile quality enjoyed through her manipulation of materials. Her sensibilities result in delicate adjustment of materials in response to light's as it travels through or is reflected off of their surfaces. This work is made through the animation of LEDs, not computer programs. This grounding in material studies, extended into electronics and circuitry, is further enriched through her research into the psychological and physiological effects that imagery, light and color have on the viewers. The integration of programmable LEDs has brought Godley's work back to her original vocabulary of 11Color, color, color, pattern, and shape". The work on display is the result of these ongoing investigations, provoking questions regarding how the merger of light and materials might be used to speak to us, to mesmerize, to excite, and to calm.

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