Metal :: Winter Lights 08

Winter Lights 08

The final neon installation that will light up the neighbourhoods of Kensington, Kirkdale and Garston is Michael Pinsky’s Title Author Genre. The Winter Lights programme, in these three bordering neighbourhoods of Liverpool, has created a total of nine neon artworks, commissioned by the Big Table network made up of Garston Cultural Village, Rotunda in Kirkdale, Metal in Kensington and the Liverpool Biennial.

This year’s commission Title Author Genre takes the form of three animated neon sculptures each constructed from specially designed signatures from each area. The sculptures mix existing graffiti tags with symbols specifically created by members of each community in response to each light’s location. Children from Kensington Field’s Community Centre came up with words and phrases that they felt specifically related to their neighbourhood. Can you see what common nickname for Kensington appears in the tag?

Artist Michael Pinsky believes graffiti helps define our neighbourhoods and for this artwork he has drawn inspiration from some of the graffiti tags that currently exist on streets and buildings in Liverpool. The process of transforming these marks into neon motifs and creating illuminated sculptures alters the way we think about them. Whilst some visitors only see abstract calligraphic shapes, others will recognise their origins or even have authored the tag.

Mount Vernon

“Tagging is one from the large gamut of methods people use to make their mark on their urban environment. As an artist who uses the city as a canvas to develop, produce and present ideas, the relationship between commissioned public art and the undercurrent of other urban interventions has always interested me. The process of transforming a number of these often-beautiful forms into neon motifs, to create illuminated sculptures, changes the perceived functions and implications of these designs, pushing the ambiguous relationship they have with their community.”

Michael Pinsky