7 Segment Display, 2018
2 ft x 4 ft
Fluorescent bulbs
7 Segment Display is a conceptual artwork in which the description becomes the work itself.
The artwork is composed of seven fluorescent light fixtures arranged in the shape of a seven-segment display that systematically spells out the description of the work that would be found on the placard accompanying it. In this specific piece, the placard reads: “7 Segment Display, 2018, fluorescent bulbs, 2 ft by 4 ft”.
In conceptualizing 7 Segment Display I was considering the essay from Sol Lewitt, “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” in which he defends and explores the construct of conceptual art. In his essay, he states that “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art”. In doing so the work can be non-theoretical nor illustrative of theories, and purposeless. It can remain free of skill or craft and remain emotionally dry. The ideas need not be complex and can remain utterly simple and inevitable. In such work as this, there lacks subjectiveness, but only objectiveness. The work exists simply as it is, as a self-descriptive object. The work was first created from the description (7 Segment Display, 2018, fluorescent bulbs, 2 ft by 4 ft) and was then self-realized to exist as it does now.
