Skip to Content
Closed now, next open tomorrow. Closed now, next open tomorrow.

6th Light, from the series The 7 Lights

A work made of digital video projection; 14 min. loop.

Image actions

  • A work made of digital video projection; 14 min. loop.

Date:

2007

Artist:

Paul Chan
American, born Hong Kong, 1973

About this artwork

Chan’s 7 Lights, collapses an entire day—from dawn to dusk—into an endless loop of light and shadow, destruction and creation. The images, all of which were constructed by Chan (including the digitallyanimated paper silhouettes used in the first six Lights), waver between clear and abstracted shadows of nature, consumer objects, and human figures. Conjuring symbolic interpretations of the biblical stories of Creation and the Rapture, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro, and September 11, Chan’s silent, indeterminate spaces are ambiguously ruled by a gravitational force that saves and destroys at will. Described by the artist as “light and light that has been struck out,” this meditative cycle implies an underlying spiritual tension while simultaneously suggesting a formal return to the origins of cinema, which relied equally on light and shadow to reflect reality.

Paul Chan is known for utilizing outdated, low-tech software and computer programs to create digital animations and video projections that interweavehistorical and contemporary themes of violence and destruction with wide-ranging art-historical and cultural references—such as artist Henry Darger’s Vivian girls, artist Francesco de Goya’s dark images of torture,rapper Biggie Smalls, filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, and philosopher François Fourier. A politically active artist who works across media, Chan creates projects that span traditional concepts of drawing, collage, anddocumentary video: from internet-based custom-made fonts and digital files of personally influential literary and philosophical texts, to a theatrical staging of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Paul Chan

Title

6th Light, from the series The 7 Lights

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

2007

Medium

Digital video projection; 14 min. loop

Credit Line

Gift of Society for Contemporary Art, funded by Marilyn and Larry Fields

Reference Number

2009.570

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Learn more

Image actions

Share