Like a Moth to a Flame: Why Neon?

For years, neon drew me in like a moth to a flame, but it transformed into true love once the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) provided the opportunity to explore my passion firsthand.  An interest in creating album covers and projects for the music industry led to my 2018 enrollment at SAIC to pursue Visual Communication Design (VCD).  Visualizing energy intrigued me until I recognized myself as a synesthete—fusing sound vibrations with waves of light as color. My imperfect, yet adapted educational path at the school led me to the medium that I now find perfectly encapsulates both my time at the institution and my praxis. From the science to the symbology of Neon, it is the ideal method for communicating the visual messages I originally sought to convey, while also furthering the sensory experience through light to deepen the connection. 

Despite my path to the VCD department closing, I redirected and focused on completing additional required courses and enrolled in Sounding Bodies in the Fall of 2019. I had never previously taken any sound or music course. Here, the course introduced an entirely new world of thinking about auditory experiences. This is where I first learned about James Turrell and his piece Twilight Epiphany – a piece of work I found absolutely captivating. It seemed simultaneously ingenious and simplistic. Fascinated by the way our eyes perceive (or misperceive) color, Turell designed the space like an optical illusion so that the colors seen through a mirrorless lens, such as a camera, are different from the reflection in the iris of the human eye. Turell’s skyscape focuses on the perception of sight as much as sound by including surround sound speakers embedded into the flooring and walls. The installation invites listeners to also become viewers as it completely immerses anyone who enters. Turell’s work was a full-circle reminder of why I found myself at SAIC in the first place. 

My art practice originated from designing for concept projects. I was drawn to musicians like The 1975 because of their original sound, intimate lyrics, and raw approach to performing. In 2016, the band released I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It. They worked with Samuel Burgess Johnson, who became the band’s go-to collaborator for creative direction. His artistic style went on to inspire both my painting and photography. Throughout the album, music videos, tour, and more, the neon signs dedicated to each song were displayed over and over again, casting their warm and soft pink glow. It was—and still is—one of the best artistic directions visually paired with sound, both halves perfectly complementary of one another. The successful execution of this project inspired me to create art that could replicate the experience, as well as igniting my career in Creative Direction. However, I did not know how this could be brought to fruition until my enrollment at SAIC, where learning theoretical frameworks allowed me to fully understand my creative impulses.

Several years later, in 2021, I stumbled upon the film Last Night in Soho, where the neon sign outside the main character’s window is employed as a focus point through mood lighting and repeated as a plot tool. I am attracted to media that focuses on the gendered and sexual experiences of women, such as this film. Similar to The 1975’s sophomore album, the movie has a late 1960s and early 1970s retro aesthetic. The two projects have an affinity for portraying the deep and personal moments surrounding sexual encounters in songs like Please Be Naked and the flashback scenes, which both include the soft glow of red and pink hues cast from the neon signs throughout the bedrooms depicted. They also recall the ambiance of real places like Red Light districts in Amsterdam or Bangkok, notorious for their promiscuity. Although the existence of sex and tattoo shops, often located in proximity to one another, long predate neon signs, it became common practice to utilize this lighting and iconography to set the tone in these establishments. These are spaces that embody— both literally and figuratively—the expression of identity and sexuality. Unbeknownst to me at the time, these works had begun to worm their way into the left side of my brain and ruminate.

The three projects intertwine repetitive themes of identity, energy, and sensation. Art is both an opportunity to record our experiences and share them. Its origins are rooted in the history of storytelling through images long before humans could read or write. The first archives of human history were recorded through songs and pictures, many stored in churches where communities came together to connect with something greater than themselves. I find neon reminiscent of the simple yet intricate designs that early glass makers created in the stained glass windows. In a way, Turell created his own non-denominational “church” with his light installation. Like people, light and sound are both made up of energy. I am fascinated by the ways in which our forms of communication continue to evolve sonically, visually, and orally. Our identity is a blend of who we recognize ourselves as and who we want others to perceive us as. Often, we identify with a genre of sound or a particular color, and we convey these thoughts through our vernacular. Neon has become an indispensable instrument in my practice as it perfectly embodies the history of sexual and gender representation, best simplified through iconography and linguistics, with the additional sensual effects. 

In 2022, I began attempting to combine these ideas in my installations. Through my projects, I hope to execute the ideal amalgamation to resonate with viewers. When approaching the opportunity to create neon for the first time, it felt overwhelming. The idea came from my years of research and passion for lingerie, something I continue to explore today. Our underwear is something even more personal to us than just the usual clothes we express ourselves with; it’s what we choose for only a select few to see. I created a small-scale underwear sculpture in 2019 to protest a sexual assault case, published several articles for a Sex & Intimacy column in 2021-22, and shot numerous boudoir sessions during these years. This piece was an opportunity to express more of my personal feelings regarding underwear, which I like to show off. No two pieces are the same. I can interchange them as I want to. However, most importantly, the glass is fragile like lingerie often is. The pieces are all hung with clothespins next to them on a wire as if they were hanging shamelessly – just like my laundry used to on our back balcony. Let’s Get Intimate is a focus in my portfolio because, like other works I love the most, I consider it to be both inviting and provoking simultaneously. While everyone can relate to the simplicity of the subject, they may not always feel comfortable “airing their laundry” publicly. The hope is that this piece would set the mood for those viewing it to (if only briefly) get comfortable with metaphorically stripping down together. Additionally, POP Art was created with the challenge of an animated neon installation inspired by artists like Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and, of course, Roy Lichtenstein. I created this piece while simultaneously working in my first print class and fabricating numerous paper works inspired by the traditional Pop Era ideology of engaging with culture and identity. Like many other queer artists, this style encapsulates an opportunity to embrace joy without overcomplication and therefore makes art more relatable and attainable. I consider it camp to make art so straight-to-the-point that elitists find it obnoxious. Rather, I prefer to define it as art that everyone can appreciate and enjoy. 

My appreciation for neon includes its history as a craft and tactile creating experience. With the devaluation of craft over the decades due to capitalism and the patriarchy, I found it necessary to work in mediums reflective of the community found cultivated at the intersection between feminine and queer. These communities gather in spaces filled with the light and sounds created as beacons of their identities, calling to one another; whether that be a church, theatre, concert, club, or tattoo shop. For this reason, I approach it time and time again across all mediums in albums, films, or installations that synthesize the senses through the use of neon. When done right, the sign becomes a sculpture more than just work, but instead is art. The colors and sound complement each other, creating a space that only exists within the installation. It pulls viewers into the art and out of themselves. Neon is demanding of attention; something fragile, yet loud. The glass is hard while the light is soft. While capturing the essence of intimate messages, it proceeds to deliver them with an emphasis on their significance while also maintaining accessible dissemination. 

 Walker, Alissa. “James Turrell’s Latest Is Part Light Installation, Part Sound Laboratory.” Fast Company, 3 Aug. 2011, www.fastcompany.com/1670311/james-turrell-s-latest-is-part-light-installation-part-sound-laboratory.

 Gottschalk, Molly. “How Samuel Burgess-Johnson Snapshots Music through Art Direction.” British Journal of Photography, 11 Aug. 2016, www.1854.photography/2016/08/how-samuel-burgess-johnson-snapshots-music-through-art-direction/.

 Dargis, Manohla. “'Last Night in Soho' Review: Time Travel, With a Touch of Horror.” The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/movies/last-night-in-soho-review.html.