Details

Title

The Cave of Making

Artist/Maker

Spencer Finch (American, born 1962)

Date

2005

Medium

Fixtures, fluorescent lights, and transparent polycarbonate gels

Dimensions

84 x 456 inches

Credit

Purchase

Accession #

2005.284

On View

Currently not on view

Though primarily a sculptor, Spencer Finch has in recent years begun producing light installations that are often site-specific, including The Cave of Making, which comprises seven rows of single-strip T-8 fluorescent light fixtures. Finch re-creates the precise light condition at dawn at the entrance to the famous Paleolithic cave in Lascaux, France. Colored gels that cover the fluorescent tubes suggest both the morning sky outside the cave and the mineral pigments used for the cave paintings within, while the horizontal orientation of the work evokes the image of the sun rising above the horizon. The title is borrowed from W. H. Auden’s poem about the creative process.

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